@article{1355108,
      recid = {1355108},
      author = {Phizicky, Stephen. and McKenna, Terence.},
      title = {Voices from the brink the Cuban missile crisis /  [electronic resource] :},
      publisher = {Filmakers Library,},
      address = {New York, NY :},
      pages = {1 online resource (24 min.).},
      year = {2003},
      note = {Title from resource description page (viewed Apr. 14,  2014).},
      abstract = {As the threat of weapons of mass destruction looms, this  video, made in the late '90s, becomes disturbingly  relevant.  The closest the world came to a nuclear war in  the twentieth century was the Cuban Missile Crisis which  played itself out over 13 days in October, 1962.  Remarkably, the behind-the-scenes debates were  unobtrusively recorded on tape; these were not  de-classified until the late 90s. In this film, we hear on  tape President John F. Kennedy and the people around him  preparing to confront the Soviet Union in Cuba, in the  episode considered the climax of the Cold War.  The tapes  demonstrate how Kennedy stood up to relentless pressure to  go to war. His own generals, congressmen and friends warned  him that appeasement could lead to disaster; he must not  appear cowardly. The issue of pre-emptive strike was  considered. In the film, Robert McNamara, the former U.S.  Defense Secretary and Gen. Maxwell Taylor, the former  Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urge an attack on  Cuba with the goal of destroying the Russian missiles.  Opposing them are Attorney General Robert Kennedy and  Assistant Secretary of State George Ball, who felt that a  surprise air strike would be a terrible political error.  Sergei Khrushchev, the son of the Soviet premier, recalls  his father's shock at learning his military had, without  authorization, shot down an American U-2.  For all the  calmness displayed on these tapes by the President and his  key advisors, we now know that some of their calculations  were shockingly mistaken. They had no idea of the dangers  the country was really facing. The world was much closer to  nuclear war than anyone knew.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1355108},
}