5-3-1-3To the Brink of Nuclear War

In the 1950s, the United States possessed many more nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union, but a spiraling nuclear arms race spurred the Soviet Union to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Tension between the United States and the Soviet Union peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The Soviet Union moved to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba, which provoked a U.S. threat to block their installation with armed force. This standoff carried the world to the brink of nuclear war.