In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon both won the presidency in part by positioning themselves as fierce anticommunist Cold Warriors.

In 1947, President Truman kicked off the Cold War sentiment with the Truman Doctrine, we lent a helping hand to countries like Greece and Turkey so they didn't fall to communism, and re-igniting witch-hunt paranoia, every man, woman, and child was looking under their beds at night for communists. 

Once in office, however, both presidents found their ambitions of rolling back worldwide communism thwarted by the threat of apocalyptic nuclear war. In the nuclear age, direct confrontation with the Soviet Empire simply became too dangerous to contemplate—a fact dramatized with terrifying clarity by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cuba was a little close for comfort, so in 1959, when its government was overthrown by Big Bad Communists, America went through a series of fumbled attempts at dealing with our fear.

Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution, oppressed the opposition in Cuba, nationalized some land, and hindered American business in Cuba.

America was all, "Well, let's see what you do now if we throw some economic sanctions on ya?"

So, Cuba just became friends with the enemy: the Soviet Union. That was the painful kicker. 

Cuba and the Soviet Union are over here exchanging oil and sugar, and the U.S., third-wheeling with no power, decided to stomp its feet and make a scene. 

During President Eisenhower's last year in office, the CIA had already begun planning how to handle this Castro guy. With Kennedy in place, we went for an invasion of the Bay of Pigs.

If it sounds funny, you're on the right track. A Cuban guerrilla army trained by America was outnumbered, landing in the wrong place, and sinking their own ships on coral reefs. They were killed, taken prisoner, and surrendered after a mere 24 hours. We'd call that a fail. 

To add some salt to the wound, Castro let the Soviet Union build nuke launch sites in Cuba. The U.S. was none the wiser until an American spy plane flew over a huge fleet of Soviet warships going full steam ahead to Cuba.

What seemed to be a battle of egos, was now a more eminent reality of nuclear war, more real and more threatening than before. This was the Cuban Missile Crisis, where for six intense days in October 1962, we were in a nuclear standoff with the Soviets. In our own backyard. The whole country breathed a sigh of relief when America and the Soviet Union decided to dismantle some of their nukes. 

By the early 1970s, President Nixon—who had built his entire political career upon the principle of anticommunism—led a shift in American policy away from confrontation with the Soviet Union and toward détente, a policy of mutual acceptance and peaceful coexistence.

Humankind has never come as close to apocalypse as it did in October 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union found themselves locked in stalemate over nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba.

For 13 days, the world teetered on the brink. Finally, the Soviets relented and agreed to remove their missiles from the island. "We're eyeball to eyeball," said the American Secretary of State, "and I think the other fellow just blinked."

Uh, hold that thought, Mr. Secretary.

Doomsday was averted, and Americans emerged from their backyard fallout shelters full of admiration for President John F. Kennedy, who had held his nerve with icy coolness to prevail in the standoff.

But everything Americans thought they understood about the Cuban Missile Crisis was wrong. Kennedy had not, in fact, prevailed through sheer resolve. He had defused the situation through negotiation and a secret compromise with the Soviet leadership. Kennedy's genius in the Missile Crisis was not truly his fearless refusal to bend to Soviet demands. To the contrary, it was his willingness to make a deal to avoid nuclear holocaust.

But Kennedy's deal remained a secret, so most Americans learned exactly the wrong lesson from the crisis. Their determination to emulate Kennedy's supposed uncompromising resolve would not serve them well in Vietnam.

The true story is here, so keep on reading. So is the story of how a ping-pong team changed the global geopolitical landscape.

What's not to like about that?