The Cuban Missile Crisis

They were the scariest days in my life, those seven days in October 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war.

I was a senior at Northwestern University. In the autumn of 1962, I was in the honors seminar for political science, my major. My professor was Richard Snyder, head of the department, who had built it into one of the best in nation. We met every Tuesday night at his home on Orrington Avenue in Evanston, just a few blocks north of the home where I rented an attic room. We also met a couple of more times that week to discuss the latest developments in the crisis.

On Oct. 22, we saw President John F. Kennedy address the nation about the severity of the crisis and tell Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to remove all the missile bases and their deadly contents from Cuba. President Kennedy wasn't kidding. Everyone knew he meant business. But it took Premier Khrushchev a few days to back down.

This crisis unfolded on television and radio and in newspapers and magazines everywhere. The whole world was watching. For seven days, everyone sat on the brink.

There have been wars and crises since then, but for me at least, nothing has been scarier, not even Sept. 11, 2001. We all had to imagine what our cities and our towns, our families and friends, would be like in the aftermath of a nuclear war. And what would the rest of the world be like? What would happen to them?

No one knew what would happen. The uncertainty, the anxiety haunted everyone. Finally, on Oct. 28, thinking better of prolonging his challenge to the United States, the Russian Premier conceded to President Kennedy's demands by ordering all Soviet supply ships away from Cuban waters and agreeing to remove the missiles from Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was over.