. >> people around the world breathed a huge sigh of relief when the soviet president nikita khrushchev agreed to withdraw missiles from cuba. in return, president kennedy pledged the united states would not invade cuba and would withdraw its medium-range nuclear missiles from turkey. it appeared the moment of danger had passed. but new documents shortly to be published from the archives of christoph's deputy during the crisis tell a different story. this woman describes the contents. >> what these declassified documents show is the cuban missile crisis it entered a new stage of crisis. we know now the soviet union delivered not only strategic missiles to cuba, medium-range missiles to cuba, but also over 100 tactical nuclear weapons. and these weapons were not covered by the agreements between kennedy and khrushchev. >> the agreement between washington and moscow came after the most critical day of the crisis, known as black saturday. >> black saturday, october 27, was the peak of the crisis. both kennedy and khrushchev felled the situation -- felt the situation was slipping out of con

soldiers would have been killed instantly. >> during december 1962, both kennedy and nikita khrushchev to acknowledge how close they came to nuclear war. chris jeff wrote to kennedy, proposing that they work to eliminate nuclear weapons by the end of kennedy's second term. it was never to be. >> reporting on a crisis that was even more grave than we'd thought. that brings today is programmed to close. you can find constant updates on our website. make sure to check our facebook page. from all of us here at world news america, thank you for watching. have a great weekend. >> make sense of>> make sense ol news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic decisions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news"ceby kost

nikita khrushchev believed until his death that fidel castro personally ordered the shootdown by a soviet ground to air missile site. khrushchev believed that castro had somehow been responsible for it himself. apparently he was not. it was a soviet commander that gave the order to fire the missile. it was in the spirit of joint conflict, soviet military and the cuban military were now essentially resisting the americans as one. the general said it was amazing that we were prepared. we soviet forces including himself, the general, we were prepared if the americans invaded, we were prepared to fight as hard as we could and then to go into the mountains of cuba and to fight to the death as guerrillas with our cuban comrades. a soviet general said that. arthur schlesinger summed it up nicely in something he wrote later. he said by black saturday, psychologically, fidel castro had come to dominate most of the soviet leadership in cuba. fidel was that percent persuasive and that mezmorizing that they were beginning to follow his bidding if not his actual orders. the general said we were inspir

president john kennedy and soviet leader nikita khrushchev in response to the american deployment to ballistic missiles in turkey targeted at major soviet cities the soviet union retaliated the stationing their own missiles in cuba about time the world found itself in one step away from the start of global nuclear war. the way of life in this small village never changes that's why the appearance of any newcomer in south is a big event. when the first soviet specialists came to the village in august one thousand nine hundred sixty two the locals were told to keep their mouths shut. a large plot of land in the village outskirts was fenced off with barbed wire what went on inside that enclosure was kept secret for a long time today an old bunker is in ruins the residents have found a use for everything they could take from those ruins. here for example you see all these places all these. are now in the wrong were set up all the by russian i'm. not cuban came here now you can see this now you can gain as little base so we are in a place where part of the wall was the border of the there

president john kennedy and soviet leader nikita khrushchev in response to the american deployment of ballistic missiles in turkey targeted at mages soviet cities the soviet union retaliated the stationing their own missiles in cuba about time the world found itself one step away from the start of global nuclear war.

nikita khrushchev had plans to hit new york and said to.uote, i knew the united states could knock out some of our missiles even if only one or two big ones were left, we could still hit new york. an awful lot of people would have been wiped out. consequences. understand the consequences. that's what foreign policy is about. war isn't a policy. we have no idea what the mullahs plan to do if we attack. they could unleash hezbollah and it's tens of thousands of rockets on israel, unlash hamas in gaza forcing israel to invade killing any number of civilians. where would we be then? mr. romney's performance in foreign affairs to shhis shoot first and request questions later suggests a bull who brings his china shop with him. i'm joined by "the huffington post" howard fineman, john heilemann, and delaware attorney general beau biden. our special guest must be given the first question. you will not like this question, sir, mr. attorney general. >> it's "hardball." >> general, can i call you general? >> beau is good. >> thank you. >> does romney w

there were offensive weapons, some of them aimed at new york as nikita khrushchev tried to aim and nuclearjack kennedy knew how things worked in the war and one step it thinks it must take, other country takes the next step and suddenly they are at war. here's something else from reading history. countries that have weapon almost always end up using them. we used atomic weapons to end the world war ii in the pacific. kennedy decided to deal not just with the missiles in cuba but what would the russians do, what would we do then because he thought it out, because he knew his history, he was not an idealog. it's the consequences we have to live through or not live through. one thing for sure, if romney wins, he brings those crowds around work, the cheney crowd, the whole hawkish crew with him right back in with him. and that's "hardball" for now. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts

nikita khrushchev believed until his death that fidel castro personally ordered the shootdown by a soviet ground to air missile site. khrushchev believed that castro had somehow been responsible for it himself. apparently he was not. it was a soviet commander that gave the order to fire the missile. it was in the spirit of joint conflict, soviet military and the cuban military were now essentially resisting the americans as one. the general said it was amazing that we were prepared. we soviet forces including himself, the general, we were prepared if the americans invaded, we were prepared to fight as hard as we could and then to go into the mountains of cuba and to fight to the death as guerrillas with our cuban comrades. a soviet general said that. arthur schlesinger summed it up nicely in something he wrote later. he said by black saturday, psychologically, fidel castro had come to dominate most of the soviet leadership in cuba. fidel was that percent persuasive and that mezmorizing that they were beginning to follow his bidding if not his actual orders. the general said we were inspir