gilbertdoctorow  October 4, 2023 READ

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the most widely known and discussed ‘near miss’ which the world had with a nuclear war in the 20^th century. At its peaceful conclusion, several safeguard procedures, or as we now call them, “guard rails,” were put in place to ensure that the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for control of human destiny would not suddenly escalate to a hot war. A “red line” telephone was set up to ensure that the heads of state could contact one another in case actions of one or the other side could be misconstrued as a nuclear attack. This was famously mocked in the anti-war movie Dr. Strangelove.