October 1962: in response to the stationing of Soviet intermediate-range missiles on Cuba, the USA imposed a blockade on the island and put its own nuclear missiles and long-range bomber planes on high alert. Drawing on American, Soviet and Cuban files, Bernd Greiner tells the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis: why it escalated, how a political solution was found and how the repercussions of the confrontation are still being felt today. In his war against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has already resorted to nuclear blackmail – under different circumstances but with the same logic that left the world’s fate hanging in the balance in the autumn of 1962.