The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world close to nuclear war. But who saved the world? Was it US President Kennedy? Or was it a young Russian submarine office named Basil (in Russian, Basil = Vasily)?

Check out maps and photos on https://www.dadandmelovehistory.com/

After the end theme music, you'll find these questions:

1. Who were the two superpower countries on opposite sides to each other during the Cold War (1945-91)?

2. What did the US government not like about Cuba?

3. What did American U2 spy planes see in Cuba that threatened the USA?

4. Why do you think President Kennedy did not invade Cuba nor fire nuclear weapons at it?

5. How did Vasily Arkipov save the world from World War III?

6. After the Russians removed their nuclear missiles from Cuba, where did the USA remove their missiles from?

Here's our website, where you'll find photos, info about each episode and links to our social media: dadandmelovehistory.com - here, you can also listen to episodes.

We also recommend the family-friendly History Detective podcast. Check out historydetectivepodcast.com!

For mature history lovers: read industry reviews of Dad's World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available as e-books, as well as in paperback. Dad's first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

Please rate and review us wherever you get podcasts. And share our podcast on social media and recommend it to friends – that's how we'll keep going. We will bring you more episodes, so stay subscribed on your podcast app!

Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

All instrumental music is from https://filmmusic.io and composed by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Sound effects are used under RemArc Licence. Copyright 2026 © BBC