The brief history taught to Americans about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis is that evil Soviets conspired with evil Castro to secretly place nuclear armed ballistic missiles in Cuba to threaten the United States. The United States military uncovered this plot, so President John Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba. The commies backed down and removed the missiles.
This is true but leaves out key facts: 1) The United States had installed 45 nuclear armed Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey in 1961. 2) The Americans were unaware that nuclear armed missiles were ready to launch from Cuba during this crisis, and that Castro had ordered these missiles launched should the United States attack. 3) The captain of a Soviet submarine concluded war had begun and ordered the launch of a nuclear torpedo. 4) Millions of Americans were almost killed.
