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Three Men Go To War : PBS.

Premiering on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missle Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War focuses on three central figures in the crisis — President John F. Kennedy, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy informed the world that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases on the island of Cuba, 90 miles off the shores of Florida. The events of the next tension-filled 13 days, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, struck fear across the globe as the world teetered on the edge of nuclear disaster. The fate of the planet ultimately lay in the hands of three powerful men: Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy. Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War explores the roles the three leaders played during some of the most dangerous moments in history, set against the human stories of ordinary men in the field such as the Soviet man who shot down the U2 piloted by U.S. Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson on the worst day of the crisis.

The film features interviews with key witnesses and experts, including Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet premier; Ted Sorensen, former member of the renowned Executive Committee of the U.S. National Security Council; former KGB and CIA operatives; and Captain Jerry Coffee, the reconnaissance pilot who made a split second decision to veer off course in Cuba and revealed a new type of nuclear weapon that could have annihilated invading American forces. An edge-of-your seat tale of espionage and intrigue at the highest level, Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War offers perspective on one of the most harrowing times in modern history.

The Man Who Saved the World

In October 1962, the world held its breath. On the edge of the Caribbean Sea, just a few miles from the Florida coast, the two great superpowers were at a stand-off. Surrounded by twelve US destroyers, which were depth-charging his submarine to drive it to the surface, Captain Vitali Grigorievitch Savitsky panicked. Unable to contact Moscow and fearing war had begun, he ordered the launch of his submarine’s nuclear torpedoes. As the two sides inched perilously close to nuclear war—far closer than we ever knew before–just one man stood between Captain Savitsky’s order and mutually assured destruction.

Set over four hours on October 27, 1962, the tensest moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this program tells the powerful but forgotten story of Vasili Arkhipov and Soviet submarine B-59. With most of the action set in a claustrophobic submarine running out of air, “The Man Who Saved the World” combines tense drama with eyewitness accounts and expert testimony about some of the most critical events in the Cold War.