On The Brink of Nuclear War

Written By: Bob Livingston  |  Posted: Monday, December 12th, 2011

             Forty-nine years ago, the United States and the USSR stood on the brink of a full-scale nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was coming to a head.

            After intelligence analysts reviewing surveillance photographs spotted medium-range missile sites being constructed in Cuba, President John F. Kennedy convened a group of his closest advisers at the White House on Oct. 16, 1962 to discuss a response. According to an article on George Washington University's National Security Archives website, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlined three possible responses:

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