The Cuban missle crisis: where were you when...

Things actually came much, much closer to a nuclear exchange than anyone in the west realized until just seven years ago, when a retrospective US-Russian conference of key players was held to review the whole crisis for historical purposes. It emerged (for the first time, outside of Soviet command channels) that the commanding officer of one of the Soviet submarines--surrounded by US units and being depth-bombed, had autonomous authority to launch his nuclear torpedo, and he literally was on the verge of doing it. His executive officer--a mere commander in rank--"talked him out of it and saved the world" as some have said, since these events became known in 2002. From the Wikipedia article:

"Arguably the most dangerous moment in the crisis was unrecognized until the Cuban Missile Crisis Havana conference in October 2002, attended by many of the veterans of the crisis, at which it was learned that on October 26, 1962 the USS Beale had tracked and dropped signalling depth charges on the B-59, a Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine which was armed with a nuclear torpedo. Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. An argument broke out among three officers on the B-59, including submarine captain Valentin Savitsky, political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov , and chief of staff of the submarine flotilla, Commander Vasiliy Arkhipov . An exhausted Savitsky became furious and ordered that the nuclear torpedo on board be made combat ready. Accounts differ about whether Commander Arkhipov convinced Savitsky not to make the attack, or whether Savitsky himself finally concluded that the only reasonable choice left open to him was to come to the surface.^{[ 33]"}

If anyone has seen the 1966 movie "The Russians are coming the Russians are coming" with Alan Arkin, and remembers the events near the end of it, there is an extraordinary parallel with the earlier, actual events in the Caribbean in 1962. (In the movie, an armed Russian submarine, after a sequence of mishaps and blunders, has come dockside in a tiny Nantucket port; its commanding officer, furious, has ordered his tower gunner to open fire on the assembled citizens of the town; the townspeople have aimed their shotguns at the captain and the tower gunner; the gunner hesitates; the sub's level-headed, likable XO (played by Arkin) is trying desperately to cool down the CO and persuade him to back off.) The real-life version, however, was no movie and no comedy; if that nuclear torpedo had been fired at the American flotilla, response would have led to response, would have led to response....On behalf of the entire world, and in particular, everyone born since 1962...THANK YOU, Cdr Vasiliy Arkhipov, Soviet Navy.

The closest thing to experiencing the Cuban Missle Crisis today is to view an obscure movie that is rarely seen (and not on DVD) except every few years on Turner Classic Movies. The movie, "Ladybug Ladybug" from 1963 is based on a real incident during the CMC in a California town.

(A minor correction, too late to edit) I was writing from memory, and made an error in the first paragraph of my post above. Should've written: "...literally was on the verge of doing it. The second-ranking officer--a mere commander..." (Arkhipov was not the submarine's XO, but an embarked member of the flotilla staff.)

(I took too long editing, so here's my real post)

The closest thing to experiencing the Cuban Missle Crisis today is to view an obscure movie that is rarely seen (and not on DVD) except every few years on Turner Classic Movies. The movie, "Ladybug Ladybug" from 1963 is based on a real incident during the CMC in a California town. I've seen it and to me it's superb.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057242/

A thread on the message board for "Ladybug Ladybug" has the following exchange . . .

"The way I understand (I read about it in a review of the movie) the true story was it happend in a California communty during the Cuban Missle Crisis theier REAL LIFE civil defense nuclear attack alram went off but they got to the botton of it and got the children back. and the produces of "Ladybug Ladybug" decied to see what would happen IF they were UNABLE to found out intime and sent the children home not knowing if the alert Real a Drill or a mistake."

"Yes, I wrote the story when I was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.It was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the air raid alarm sounded at a school in Palos Verdes, California, near the Pacific Coast. Apparently a reader used that to write a novel about the incident that was sold to a motion picture company. I have never seen thee picture, but would like to buy it if anyone can tell me where it can be purchased."

"I was a fifth grader at that school (Miraleste Elementary in what is now Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) and remember being escorted about halfway home before the principal drove around and told us to head on back as it was a drill or false alarm. I don't remember us being scared, but probably a little unsure about the whole thing."

And a review from IMDB . . .

"Hard to find anyone who has actually seen this movie. Doesn't deserve to be hidden away, it has a wonderful sense of unease and imminent danger as a small school receives a nuclear alert warning and while the principal tries to verify it he decides to evacuate the school. This involves the teachers walking the students back to their homes. The uncertainty remains throughout till the shattering climax. Among several movies of the period with a nuclear threat element(eg. Dr. Strangelove, Failsafe, Lord of the Flies)."

I was still too sleep deprived from getting up for the 4 AM feedings, John, to remember much at all of world shaking events just 40 miles south of us. First child, my son, born August 1962 at Naval Hospital, Naval Training Center Bainbridge, Port Deposit MD where I was stationed. Something kept my discharge papers on hold, I knew, and I wasn't happy about that at all. Had all the resumes sent out and eager to go Westward to paradise (aka San Diego CA) before the snow got to flying in rural Maryland.

Here's a comprehensive review of "Ladybug Ladybug" . . .

http://www.fright.com/edge/ladybug.html

I was a 10 year old in the UK and a typical enough kid to not be terribly impressionable by what was going on in the world. But I can remember the tension in the discussions overheard between my parents and their friends, their carefully worded explanations to any questions from us kids and the unusual level of attention paid to the radio news. The relief after the event was also palpable and heightened the feelings of loss when Kennedy was assassinated a matter of months later.

One of the (of not the ) bleakest and most quietly powerful films of the age of nuclear standoff was released three years before the Cuban missile crisis: On the Beach , 1959, with Gregory Peck, based on a novel of the same name by Neville Shute.

If there there were to be a vote for the single film that best captures the reasons for the pervasive sense of darkness and dread underlying most of the cold war years, On the Beach would be my nominee. I haven't seen "Ladybug Ladybug", but having now read the review, would guess that "On the Beach" probably parallels the mood, on a larger scale--and with a far darker ending--that "Ladybug Ladybug" deals with on a micro scale.

At the time, I was a senior at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and a midshipman in the Navy ROTC program on a Navy scholarship. I wasn't really aware of the seriousness of the situation until the CO of the NROTC unit called in all of us who were on Navy scholarships and told us to stand ready to be commissioned immediately and sent out to the fleet. He didn't say which fleet, Atlantic or Pacific, but if the s**t had really hit the fan I don't think it would have mattered. Normal activity on the CU campus came to a halt, with everyone glued to TV sets watching the latest news. When the situation finally stabilized, then, of course, there were parties everywhere...