Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis

(SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED STATES PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY SAYING:

"Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sights is now in preparation on that imprisoned island."

October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy warns the nation days after an American spy plane flew over Cuba taking pictures of suspected installations that the U.S. said was clear evidence of Soviet missiles deployed on the island, sparking the so called Cuban Missile Crisis.

A heated U.N. emergency session followed.

Kennedy later made a deal with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviets withdrew the missiles and the U.S. pledged to never invade Cuba.

Now an exhibit at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. is marking the anniversary. Curator of the Kennedy Library in Boston Stacey Bredhoff.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CURATOR OF KENNEDY LIBRARY IN BOSTON, STACEY BREDHOFF, SAYING:

"The Cuban Missile Crisis was really the most dangerous moment in history, it is the closest the world ever came to nuclear war."

The exhibit, called "To the Brink: JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis" includes real-time White House recordings from Kennedy's meetings with his advisors. It may also offer lessons on nuclear diplomacy. It runs through February 3rd.