Speaking to the United Nations in September 1961, President Kennedy warned, "Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness." The potential for accident, miscalculation, and madness still exists today. This potential has been heightened most recently in the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula. In looking for ways to de-escalate the present crises, it is worth looking back to a previous time when the world held its collective breath during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, which this class will focus on along with the early Cold War.

---

This course contains no sessions