Shropshire museum marks Cuban Missile Crisis anniversary
Royal Air Force Museum Cosford is today marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis – the period when the world teetered on the brink of nuclear Armageddon.
The tense 13 day political standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States of America was the closest the world has ever come to Mutually Assured Destruction.
To mark this pivotal event of the Cold War period, which nearly led to the extinction of all life on our planet, the RAF Museum is today holding a day of free talks and workshops for visitors.
Professor Mike Haynes from the University of Wolverhampton will be giving a talk entitled "1962 One Minute to Midnight", so called after the Dooms Day clock. This free talk will take place in the Museum’s Conference Room at 11:30am and 2:30pm and will last approximately 30 minutes.
Re-enactor Jed Jaggard will be running interactive workshops throughout the day in a range of displays including; an indoor tent re-creating a Civil Defence Post scenario with emergency supplies and communications equipment.
The Royal Observer Corps mobile team, will be plotting fall-out and casualties using actual equipment that would have been used during such a crisis. On show will also be a small display on the V-Force and Thor nuclear missiles with equipment from the period including British Army equipment. All interactive workshops will take place under the wings of the V-Force aircraft in the National Cold War Exhibition.
Visitors to the museum are also invited to enter the unique Cuban Missile Crisis audio visual Hotspot which contains contemporary interviews from members of the public living through the crisis, as well as news reports of the day.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began, following a US discovery of a Soviet missile base on the Caribbean island of Cuba, created to launch nuclear missiles capable of killing millions of Americans. The US President of the day, John Fitzgerald Kennedy ordered a naval blockade against Soviet ships bringing military equipment to the island, with the threat of retaliation if the blockade was broken. The situation threatened to escalate into a full-scale conflict between the Superpowers as Soviet President; Khrushchev considered whether to accept the challenge thrown down by the Americans. Just six days after the US ships moved into the path of the Soviet vessels, Khrushchev ordered his convoy to turn back and agreed to dismantle the Cuban bases. The confrontation officially came to an end on October 28th 1962.
