Cuban missile crisis, 60 years on: new papers reveal how close the world came to nuclear disaster

Summary

Julian Borger writing in the Guardian, makes the following points:

•  The USA then blockaded Cuba; however, the Russian navy still attempted to run the blockade.
• A Russian submarine was part of the task force that attempted to run the USA blockade of Cuba.
• The submarine commander lost his nerve and, convinced they were under attack, wanted to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo at US naval forces.
• Three officers needed to approve the launch of a nuclear-tipped torpedo.
• The third officer, the submarine brigade’s chief of staff, understood that the US forces were signalling.
• He was not prepared to authorise a launch of a nuclear-tipped torpedo.
• The Cuba crisis was resolved by Russia removing nuclear missiles from Cuba and the USA removing nuclear missiles from Turkey.

References

• MILITARY HISTORY: INDEX of PAGES AND COLLECTIONS ON THE RAAF RUNWAY
• SEP 2022 Soviet Submarine B-59 And The Man Who Single-Handedly Prevented Nuclear War-IFL Science
• OCT 2022 The Underwater Cuban Missile Crisis at 60-National Security Archive

Source Information:   

• Article Source: News, sport and opinion from the Guardian's Australia edition | The Guardian
• Media Check:    Guardian the -Media Bias/Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com)         
• RAAF RUNWAY: RATIONALE, GUIDELINES, LEARNING OUTCOMES, ETC | The Runway (airforce.gov.au)