ABSTRACT
For thirteen days in October 1962 the world stood poised on the brink of a nuclear holocaust following the discovery by US spy planes of rocket launch pads under construction in Cuba. During the crisis the US government executive committee met daily and spent long hours deliberating the problem, analysing options and discussing how to obtain Russia’s consent to the removal of the rocket sites without losing international prestige. During that critical period one of President Kennedy’s worst fears was that the holocaust would be triggered not by heads of state taking a clear and volitional decision to exercise grave options, but by an inexorable chain of events triggered by a low ranking operative carrying out their duties in a normal fashion responding to pre-programmed events (Allison and Zelikow 1999).
