2. Shot across the bow
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, US Navy has established a cordon aimed at stopping the Soviet ships carrying nuclear missiles from reaching a small Caribbean island. According to the myth, ships came bow to bow and Americans fired a warning shot across the bow of the leading Soviet ship. At the last moment, Soviets chickened out, turned tails and ran home. In the white house, Dean Rusk, JFK’s Secretary of State uttered the words:” We are eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.”
Only it never came eyeball to eyeball. The Soviet ships received orders to return when they were approximately 750 miles away from US blockade line. That show across the bow would have been one of the finest examples of naval gunnery in history.
