For one week, the world stood seconds from nuclear war.Bestselling author Jeff Shaara joins Why Wars Happened to expose the CIA failures, backchannel deals, and hidden plots that defined the Cuban Missile Crisis — the closest we’ve ever come to the end.⏱ Timestamps00:00 – Welcome to Why Wars Happened00:46 – Meet Jeff Shaara (The Shadow of War)03:32 – The Bay of Pigs: Prelude to crisis06:55 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins09:06 – Cold War context & public fear12:33 – Eisenhower vs. Kennedy15:15 – Soviet dynamics after Stalin17:43 – The “winnable war” perspective18:08 – Khrushchev’s balancing act19:02 – The aftermath20:25 – Operation Mongoose (CIA plots)22:49 – Berlin’s role in the Cold War28:38 – The secret treaty revealed30:01 – Closing thoughts#CubanMissileCrisis #ColdWar #JFK #NuclearHistory #WhyWarsHappened