Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Kennedy and Krushchev on the brink of destruction

As the standoff between Putin's Russian Federation and NATO deepens, we are reminded that the last time things were this tense was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The USSR was installing nuclear weapons in America's backyard, Cuba, as retaliation for the USA and NATO doing the same in the backyard of the USSR. The prospect of a nuclear holocaust seemed more likely than ever. The USSR was a formidable power with President Nikita Krushchev having more nuclear weapons and a track record of winning, whether the Olympic games or the space race. Despite Khrushchev's decision to partly democratise the USSR after Stalin, he was unwavering in his control of the countries within the then Iron Curtain. When Hungary sought to leave the Warsaw Pact in 1956, the uprising was crushed by the Soviet army in a couple of days with 2500 citizens killed.

As a young teenager, the Cuban Missile Crisis left an indelible impression of the fragility of life. It was the end of the 'never had it so good' days of PM Harold MacMillan. But also the start of the revolution in our values, and lifestyles and the end of respect for authority that had underpinned the post-war years. My father had always been active politically and he helped CND organise an anti-nuclear war torchlight procession in the town. I was dispatched to collect empty syrup and treacle tins from all the neighbours. We screwed them onto broom handles that had been sawn in half, filled them with rags that were soaked in paraffin and about 400 of us trundled through the town centre on evening singing Pete Seeger songs like 'If I Had a Hammer and 'Where have all the Flowers gone'. It seemed to work and the Russians and Americans backed off. 

After the retrenchment by Kennedy and Khrushchev, the local CND group wrote a play about the Cuban Missile Crisis that was performed at the cooperative hall. It was produced by Janet Beard, a passionate pacifist and art and drama teacher at the local girl's grammar school. The lead role was taken by an abrasive trade unionist from Leyland Motors, Jack Balshaw. It nurtured his nascent charisma and he went on to become a principled and energetic Councillor. At the national level, the shock of the missile crisis influenced a new era when the UK's priority of amassing weapons of mass destruction gave way to applying the white heat of technology for civilian purposes, the growth of universities, and the granting of independence to many former colonies.

The aftermath of the crisis prompted me to read the collected works of Upton Sinclair that my father had acquired during his time in the Eighth Army. The 'World's End' series consisted of 11 books, a total of 7,340 pages, covering world events and sometimes claimed as "the greatest historical novel of the 20th century". It was written from the perspective of a multilingual pacifist and art collector, Lanny Budd, the son of an American arms manufacturer and French socialite. He became a translator for President Wilson during the creation of the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference in 1920 before witnessing the Great Depression of the 1930s in America and Europe. Through friends in Germany, he observed the rise of the National Socialists. His life was a travelogue through Europe in the 1920s and 1930s with the history of art as a backdrop.

Meanwhile, as adolescence kicked in, there was more than politics and CND to fire the imagination, I had discovered radio Luxembourg, pop music, jeans and grown sideburns. Our regular evening games of football on a triangle of grass lasted until dark. After the game finished a dozen young teenagers were joined by Jeanette, the attractive sister of one of the boys and we talked about music and whether the Cuban Missile Crisis was the end of civilisation. Our parents were stocking their larders with tins of corned beef, soups and biscuits; children and teenagers were not sleeping and going to school wondering whether this would be the last time. 

Dennis had been my best friend for six or seven years, he was a year and a half older than me and about to turn 15. He was leaving school at Christmas to join the navy, see the world and get his daily ration of free cigarettes. He had styled himself on James Dean, combing his quiff, chain-smoking cigarettes and posing in his leather jacket. He expected to boss things and attract all the girls. He missed out on Jeanette, he was into Elvis and Eddie Cochrane and they were for teddy boys; Jeanette and I favoured Let's Dance by Chris Montez, and Loco-motion by Little Eva. Jeanette bought me 'He's a Rebel' by the Crystals, my first record. Dennis and I drifted apart, he had signed up for the old order. 1962 had delivered not only the worst winter since 1947 but also a near-world war and brought about the advent of my teenage angst as well as a girlfriend. 

However, in 1962 there was no real disruption, no refugees, no damage to buildings or loss of work. Just a tipping point where the strict adherence to dress codes, social etiquette and class structure had been broken. As we watch the devastation in Ukraine, the hope is that there will be another tipping point, whereby autocratic regimes will be toppled by the advance of soft warfare through social media. economic sanctions. and global ethical support for a sovereign nation. The ultimate weapon would be a United Nations that harnessed these collective soft powers and provided the resources and collective authority to protect democracy and safeguard the peaceful coexistence between all nations. If only the League of Nations had not been rejected by President Harding, the Republican American President who succeeded Wilson, and the reparations imposed on Germany by France had not been so draconian and nurtured the rise of the National Socialists.