Part 1/7:

The 13 Days of Crisis: Leadership Under Pressure

In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy faced one of the gravest challenges of his presidency and indeed of the modern world. He awoke in the White House to a startling revelation from the CIA: the Soviet Union had deployed a series of ballistic nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba. This military buildup posed an imminent threat, marking the world’s precarious balance on the brink of nuclear conflict. Kennedy's alarm was further aggravated by the fact that he had previously engaged in discussions with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, where he had received assurances that such provocative actions would not occur.