We got _incredibly_ lucky. A Soviet submarine trying to get through the blockade believed that war had broken out and wanted to attack the US fleet with nuclear torpedoes [0]. Normally only two men aboard the sub had to approve the nuclear launch, and they both wanted to fire. This particular sub happened to have a third officer [1] on board who also needed to approve the launch, and he may have literally saved the world by disagreeing with the other two officers.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#Averted_n...

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov

1. More time to think. An incoming F-14 is a minutes/seconds scenario; the Cuban crisis lasted 10 days.

2. "X did not happen" does not mean "Y was not a factor in X". The "about to get blown up" factor was part of the reason the Cuban missile crisis happened; it's also probably part of the resolution.

There were some close calls during the Cold War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...