Yes, I have written about this before.

But there is no October that I will never think of again. It’s unforgettable and scary.

No, it’s not the ‘Naughty Night’ arson that hit Gateway Mall in 1998. No, it’s not a horrific mass shooting that left 60 dead and 411 injured in Las Vegas Outdoor Music Festival 2017.

The real “Nightmare Mother” event took place during the period of October 13, when humanity was on the verge of nuclear extinction!

When I remember it, I am in enough pain. To survive was a premonition of hell.

An apocalyptic known as the “Cuba Missile Crisis” or “October Missile” in case you haven’t read, learned or are too young to remember in a “waking” school. Take a look at the historical review of the time. .. “

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The nightmare crisis came in 1962 when an American U-2 reconnaissance plane discovered a building that was later analyzed as a Soviet missile base in Cuba, just 90 miles from the Florida Keys. The Kennedy administration immediately evaluated these missiles as they were aimed at the United States. And they will be equipped with nuclear weapons.

To confirm the imminent possibility of nuclear war, US spy planes also took pictures of Russian freighters heading for Cuba with a cargo of Soviet missiles. The Soviet Union viewed this joint Cuban-Russian exercise as a vigilant countermeasure against the deployment of ballistic missiles by the United States to the United Kingdom in 1958 and to Turkey and Italy in 1961. The United States viewed it as an Armageddon.

The Cuban quarantine was ordered by President Kennedy. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev called it “an aggression that plunges humanity into the depths of the world nuclear missile war.”

If you were alive then, you would probably remember the collective horror and despair of the world. You remember the duck and blanket training that sent you scrambling under the school desk. If you were in a Catholic school, you would squat under your desk and recite the Rosary nervously.

Remember watching your family’s small black and white TV screen and Walter Cronkite, Douglas Edwards, David Brinkley and Chet Huntley telling you how lucky you are to live until Christmas?

Many did not go to work. Everyone was looking at the sky when they were outside. The air raid siren test made a strange noise day and night.

I had no choice but to watch my neighbors turn the basement (or the basement that most people knew at the time) into a bomb shelter, to store water in canned food, bottled water and other necessities.

You can also fill a 5 or 10 gallon gas canister and place it near your car if your family has it to drive who knows in case an egg called Earth breaks and collapses. I remember what I did. The panic may not have been widespread, but the fear certainly was widespread.

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In the midst of the crisis, Kennedy summoned his closest adviser to consider options and direct actions for the United States. The president has decided. On October 22, the “quarantine” of the Cuban navy was ordered.

On the same day, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev, proclaiming that the United States would not allow the delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba, dismantling the missile base already under construction or completed by the Soviet Union and sending all weapons offensives to the Soviet Union. Asked to come back.

The president appeared on television that evening to brief the public on developments in Cuba, his decision to initiate and implement a “quarantine” and the potential global implications of a crisis that continues to worsen.

The tone of the President’s remarks is harsh and the message unequivocal. “It is the policy of the Soviet Union to regard nuclear missiles launched from Cuba as an attack against the United States by the Soviet Union against any country in the Western Hemisphere. This requires a full retaliatory response to the Soviet Union.

On October 24, Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s message that the American “blockade” was “aggression” and that Soviet ships bound for Cuba had been ordered to continue. However, between October 24 and 25, some ships returned from the quarantine line. Others were arrested by the US Navy, but they did not contain offensive weapons and were allowed to continue.

Meanwhile, an American reconnaissance flight over Cuba showed that Soviet missile sites were approaching operational readiness.

The crisis changed dramatically on October 25, when ABC News correspondent John Scali contacted the White House through a Soviet agent and agreed that the Soviet Union would withdraw the missile from Cuba if the United States promised it. Suggested that he could reach. Don’t invade the island.

Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy on October 26 (midnight Moscow time) as White House staff scrambled to assess the effectiveness of this “back door” offer. “If you don’t intend to ruin the world in the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, take action not only to loosen the pull at the end of the rope, but to break the knot. We are ready for it. I am. “

American experts were convinced that Khrushchev’s message was genuine, but hopes for a solution were short-lived. On October 27, Khrushchev sent a second message indicating that the proposed transaction should include the withdrawal of the US missile Jupiter from Turkey. On the same day, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba.

Kennedy decided to ignore Khrushchev’s second message and respond to the first message. That night, Kennedy’s message to Soviet leaders suggested withdrawing Soviet missiles from Cuba under UN supervision and ensuring that the United States did not attack Cuba.

Ignoring the second message was a dangerous move.

However, on October 28, the next morning, Khrushchev issued an official statement to dismantle the Soviet missiles and withdraw them from Cuba.

The end of the crisis came when Khrushchev recalled the Soviet ship, and the world breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Although the crisis was over, the Navy quarantine continued until the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the IL-28 bomber from Cuba, and the United States ended the quarantine on November 20. . The American Jupiter missile was withdrawn from Turkey in April 1963.

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As well as remembering that horrible October (59th anniversary this week), I suspect the United States will once again face such an apocalyptic time with China, Iran, North Korea and even Putin’s Russia. . to augment.

How will the Biden administration react to such a nuclear (or cyber, or biological) crisis? If so, what advice would you seek? And who will listen? Is the answer Kennedy style or Barry Goldwater style?

Perhaps such concerns could be raised at the next White House press conference (sadly, Jen Psaki would likely be silent or, like her habits, quickly refocused. Rise).

Why am I thinking about all this? Probably because it is October again.

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No one asked, and I don’t know who said it, but it is indisputable that “war does not determine who is right, but only who is left behind”.

Last word: Tomorrow is a good day, good luck and good news!

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