What would the world be like today if Cuban missiles were actually fired at America back in 1962?

Fifty-nine years back Cuba was the major spot of attention for all nations. The world was looking closely at the situation and was expecting a nuclear war to happen, even though they crossed their fingers. Nobody wanted nuclear attacks to happen but to attack they certainly spent a lot into it. They possess it due to suspicion of their rivals and since the number of possessions ever increased.

The Cuban missile crisis was the peak in the timeline of the cold war. The war which never happened on the ground, though cold would mean passive and so did the wars were, passive. The two superpowers, the US and the USSR played the game of ideologies on the shoulders of other nations by either cudgeling or cajoling. They offered their friendship to the nations with the promise of their company as a fierce friend and claimed to provide resources, weapons etc. While they themselves wanted more than that, which they procured as well. Spying on each other using their allies' geographical locations, using their resources, manipulating them into favoring their actions. We could call all this a beginning of neo- colonialism as well, where super power countries or the developed nations no longer make colonies but allies to extract resources or economical benefits. While all the other nations of the world were either confused or terrified to join these blocs or their ideological allies, newly liberated nations felt more threatened than ever to think of joining either of those big bullies. Thus, nations including India, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Egypt and others initiated a movement called Non-alignment Movement (NAM) to stay away from such a rat race and created a third world order and prevented the pressure. But, not all nations were wary to join them. Some nations were happy to join to seek the support, such as Cuba. Cuba

shared the similar ideology of communism with the USSR, shared a bitter relationship with the US and sought to get under the shadow of the Soviet Union. In 1962, the Soviet discreetly created a military base in Cuba after the failed attempt of the US to invade in 1961. But, when the US smelled the Soviets into Cuba and during mid-October, the crisis news spread and the US army intercepted the ships coming to Cuba and after that famous 13 days chaos regarding Cuba, the diplomatic letters were exchanged demanding removal of army bases of their respective nations from Cuba (Soviet) and Turkey (the US). Even if this peak of cold war didn't lead to a nuclear war which was very much expected, it fortunately didn't due to few factors such as both possessed nuclear weapons and both were scared of the effects. Even if this peak of cold war didn't lead to a nuclear war which was very much expected, it fortunately didn't due to few factors such as, both possessed nuclear weapons and both were scared of the effects.

But, what if the Cuban missiles would have fired back at America? The answer could be, though this could have happened, it would have escalated to a big war, maybe the nukes would have actually been used. No doubt that America after being attacked won't back off from the ground without any retaliation, even if we suppose that the Soviet would apologize for it or call it a mistake. We've already witnessed Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the US showed it nuclear weapons to prove it's superiority. The nations who were even then fighting wars for years would continue with more allies and we would be learning a much bloodier history than ever. The third world order created by the newly liberated, underdeveloped countries for the sake of maintaining the peace would have been pressured to join the blocs, and India and all other nations would be at least ten years back from what we are today and that would be for all the nations today. The different thing could be that the world would not fear terrorists more than each other's diplomacy and there would be less of "global village" expression. On the other side of it, the Soviet Union would have never disintegrated and we would be more likely to be watching the chaos of extended Cold war till now in an uncertain global socio-political conditions where poverty and hunger would be more common causes of deaths than any other. When we look at today's time, what we see is every nation creating a weapon and threatening other nations, and we feel paranoid to calculate their suspected moves. The US, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Iraq, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, India and all the big names we could remember for possessing nuclear weapons claim to create it to maintain the balance. As the Polish physicist Joseph Rotblat very well stated that the cold war is over but the cold war thinking survives, the thought of expansionism and neo-colonial ideas survived. The balance of power possession was proved right during the cold war but it is not a guarantee of world peace in any state.

- Vani Tuli