Nikolai Leonov was a KGB officer stationed in Mexico during Cuban Missile Crisis.
- “One mistake at the wrong time in October 1962, and all could have been lost. I can hardly believe we are here today, talking about this. It is almost as if some divine intervention occurred to help us save ourselves, but with this proviso: we must never get that close again. Next time, we would not be so lucky, as you put it.”
Lesson: We “lucked out” during Cuban Missile Crisis. Avoid crises like it in the future.
Cited in Thomas S. Blanton and James G. Blight, “A Conversation in Havana,” Arms Control Today 32:9 (November 2002), 7.
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