Editing World War III (section)

=== Cuban Missile Crisis: 15–29 October 1962 ===
{{Main|Cuban Missile Crisis|Soviet submarine B-59}}
[[File:Soviet b-59 submarine.jpg|thumb|A US Navy [[HSS-1 Seabat]] helicopter hovers over Soviet submarine ''B-59'', forced to the surface by US Naval forces in the Caribbean near Cuba. B-59 had a nuclear torpedo on board, and three officer keys were required to use it. Only one dissent prevented the submarine from attacking the US fleet nearby, a spark that could have led to a Third World War (28–29 October 1962).]]

The [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], a confrontation on the stationing of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in response to the failed [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], is considered as having been the closest to a nuclear exchange, which could have precipitated a third World War.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Len|last1=Scott|first2=R. Gerald|last2=Hughes|title=The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJEGCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17|year=2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=17|isbn=978-1-317-55541-4|access-date=13 September 2020|archive-date=29 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160729014313/https://books.google.com/books?id=UJEGCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT17|url-status=live}}</ref> The crisis peaked on 27 October, with three separate major incidents occurring on the same day:

* The most critical incident occurred when a Soviet submarine nearly launched a [[Nuclear torpedo|nuclear-tipped torpedo]] in response to having been targeted by American naval [[depth charge]]s in international waters, with the Soviet nuclear launch response only having been prevented by [[Soviet Navy]] executive officer [[Vasily Arkhipov (vice admiral)|Vasily Arkhipov]].
* The shooting down of a [[Lockheed U-2]] spy plane piloted by [[Rudolf Anderson]] while violating Cuban airspace.
* The near interception of another U-2 that had strayed into Soviet airspace over [[Siberia]], which airspace violation nearly caused the Soviets to believe that this might be the vanguard of a US aerial bombardment.

Despite what many believe to be the closest the world has come to a nuclear conflict, throughout the entire standoff, the [[Doomsday Clock]], which is run by the ''[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' to estimate how close the end of the world, or doomsday, is, with midnight being the apocalypse, stayed at a relatively stable seven minutes to midnight. This has been explained as being due to the brevity of the crisis since the clock monitored more long-term factors such as the leadership of countries, conflicts, wars, and political upheavals, as well as societies' reactions to said factors.

The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' now credits the political developments resulting from the Cuban Missile Crisis with having enhanced global stability. The ''Bulletin'' posits that future crises and occasions that might otherwise escalate, were rendered more stable due to two major factors: 
# A [[Moscow–Washington hotline|Washington to Moscow hotline]] resulted from the communication trouble between the [[White House]] and the [[Kremlin]] during the crisis. This gave the leaders of the two largest nuclear powers the ability to contact each other in real-time, vital when seconds could potentially prevent a nuclear exchange.
# The second factor was caused in part due to the worldwide reaction to how close the US and USSR had come to the brink of World War{{nbsp}}III during the standoff. As the public began to more closely monitor topics involving nuclear weapons, and therefore to rally support for the cause of non-proliferation, the [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty|1963 test ban treaty]] was signed. To date this treaty has been signed by 126 total nations, with the most notable exceptions being [[France and weapons of mass destruction|France]] and [[China and weapons of mass destruction|China]]. Both of these countries were still in the relative beginning stages of their nuclear programs at the time of the original treaty signing, and both sought nuclear capabilities independent of their allies. This Test Ban Treaty prevented the testing of nuclear ordnance that detonated in the [[Atmosphere of Earth|atmosphere]], limiting [[nuclear weapons testing]] to below ground and underwater, decreasing [[Nuclear fallout|fallout]] and effects on the environment, and subsequently caused the Doomsday Clock to decrease by five minutes, to arrive at a total of twelve minutes to midnight.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thebulletin.org/remembering-cuban-missile-crisis |title=Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis |date=16 October 2012 |website=thebulletin.org |access-date=10 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201052807/https://thebulletin.org/remembering-cuban-missile-crisis |archive-date=1 February 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Up until this point, over 1000 nuclear bombs had been detonated, and concerns over both long and short term effects to the planet became increasingly more worrisome to scientists.