Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. - The Cuban Missile Crisis' Unsung Hero

I present today's post in the continuing effort to point out the false belief that the Cold War was fought without firing a shot. It is not true.

One of those Cold War casualties happened 53 years ago today.

Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. was a U-2 pilot who lost his life as a result of direct SAM missile fire from the Soviets stationed on Cuba. During Anderson's photographic overflight mission in the sky above Cuba on October 27, 1962; Soviet Lieutenant General Stephan Grechko gave the order to fire two SA-2 SAMs that brought down Anderson's aircraft.

Major Rudolf Anderson Jr.

This trigger action, and the naval blockade confrontations, caused both world leaders, Kennedy and Khrushchev, to pause and think about where the escalation in hostilities was leading, and as we now know, negotiate a settlement.

There is always a cause and effect to every action in life and this action motivated the start of negotiations that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis peacefully.

Please link over an read the full article at History.com. It has many additional facts surrounding this event in Cold War history.

Did you know that not all the nukes left the island right away?

To learn more; link over to the complete article and other interesting facts here.

Thank you to the website History.com for access to the article and photograph.