Duel of Two Nations

Imagine yourself pointing a gun at another person’s heart. Your finger on the trigger, ready to send a bullet straight towards your target. Imagine if the other person had a gun as well. His finger’s on the trigger ready to send his bullet straight towards your heart. You are only feet from each other, a very dangerous position to be in. If your target shoots first, instinctively your finger will pull the trigger and send your own bullet almost instantly after the first one was shot. What options are there? Shoot first and be killed, or shoot second and still be killed. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a duel of two nations. Both with fingers on the trigger. Both ready to fire. Both unready to be fired at. The Crisis of 1962 was the struggle of two nations, the United States and the Soviet Union, and their self-interest in protecting and defending themselves against any external forces.
To understand the Cuban Missile Crisis, we must first examine the two nations a...