Close to the brink? Britain and the Cuban missile crisis

Abstract

In October 1962 the world went to the brink of nuclear war when the American government discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. A year earlier the United States and the Soviet Union had already stood ‘eyeball to eyeball’ over Berlin. Europe had long been the frontline of the East‐West confrontation. But what was Britain's role during the Cuban missile crisis? Only recently have we begun to learn something about what happened, but we still do not have an accurate and comprehensive account of the diplomatic and military action taken by the British government. This article draws upon recent British and American literature to pose some questions about the British government's attitude and behaviour during the crisis in advance of the release of the official papers. These should be of interest and concern both to historians and to the general public.