Maj. R.S. Heyser, flying a Lockheed U-2E, returns to the United States with photographic evidence that Soviet SS-4 intermediate range nuclear missiles are being erected near San Christobal, Cuba. A Navy crew, flying a Lockheed P2V Neptune, returns later in the day carrying reconnaissance photographs of the Soviet freighter Omsk with oblong crates lashed to the deck that are likely missile containers. The Cuban Missile Crisis would end on Oct. 28.
While U.S. military leaders worry about China as a near-peer threat, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has doubts has serious doubts about the PLA’s political reliability, leadership, and ability to mobilize, fight, and win wars, according to a new report.