Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center has created this site as a resource for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, this site not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy.
Credit: Harry S. Truman Library. Accession number: 78-953.
U. Alexis Johnson had served in various diplomatic roles in Asia before becoming Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs from 1961 to 1964. During the Cuban Missile Crisis Johnson was present at most ExComm meetings. He thought the blockade could be a valuable first step, combined with other political and military actions, and helped prepare plans to implement it.