How close to nuclear war did the Cuban Missile Crisis get?

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 saw a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union escalate to the edge of nuclear war. Historian Serhii Plokhy, author of a new account of the crisis, explores the factors that led the two sides back from the brink.

Serhii Plokhy is the author of Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Allen lane)