The Moscow Summit of 1972 was a meeting between President
Richard M. Nixon (right) of the United States and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It
was held May 22–30, 1972. It featured the signing of the Anti-
Ballistic Missile Treaty(below) the first Strategic Arms Limitation
Treaty and the U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea agreement.

The summit is considered one of the hallmarks of the détente at
the time between the two Cold War antagonists.

Soviet aircraft forced a Korean Air Lines passenger jet to land
in the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace.

Two people were killed and several others injured when the jet
made a rough landing on a frozen lake about 300 miles south
of Murmansk.

The jet was on a flight from Paris to Seoul when the incident
occurred.

 
ROSS SIMPSON

The U.S. State Department angrily accused the Soviet Union of
shooting down an unarmed American jet that strayed into East
German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were
killed in the incident. The Soviets responded with charges that
the flight was a “gross provocation,” and the incident was an
ugly reminder of  the heightened East-West tensions of the Cold
War-era.

The occupants of the aircraft were Lieutenant Colonel Gerald K. Hannaford, Captain Donald Grant Millard and Captain John F.
Lorraine.

According to the U.S. military, the jet was on a training flight over
West Germany and pilots became disoriented by a violent storm
that led the plane to veer nearly 100 miles off course.

Memorial at the crash site near Vogelsberg.

North American T-39A Sabre Liner USAF.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19S "Farmer" at the National
Museum of the United States Air Force.

MIKE GRACIA

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F.
Kennedy announces on October 22, 1962 that U.S. spy planes 
discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—
under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-
range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in
the United States, including Washington, D.C.

Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine”
of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more
offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United
States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites
currently in place. The president made it clear that America
would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”