The 13 Days the World Came Closer to Nuclear War Than Ever Before

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]For 13 days in October 1962, the world stood on the edge of nuclear annihilation.

[00:00:06]And almost nobody alive knew how close we really came.

[00:00:10]It started with a photograph.

[00:00:13]A U-2 spy plane flying over Cuba captured something that made the White House freeze. Soviet nuclear missiles 90 mi off the coast of Florida.

[00:00:24]Missiles that could hit Washington in under 5 minutes.

[00:00:28]President Kennedy had two options on the table and his generals wanted the aggressive one.

[00:00:33]Bomb Cuba, then invade.

[00:00:36]What they didn't know is that Soviet commanders on the ground already had tactical nuclear weapons and the authority to use them.

[00:00:44]An American invasion would have triggered an instant nuclear response.

[00:00:48]Not a threat, a certainty.

[00:00:50]The world was one order away from the end.

[00:00:53]How did we step back from the edge?

[00:00:56]The full 13-day breakdown is in our new video.

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