"The Cuban Missile Crisis: When the Cold War Got Hot" opens at
Florida International Museum.
By Jay Clarke. Knight Ridder Newspapers.
SunSpot.net. Originally published Dec 26
2000.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It was the closest America ever came to global
nuclear war.
For 13 days in October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union faced
each other in a standoff over the USSR's installation of nuclear missiles in
Cuba. The confrontation brought the two great world powers to the brink of war
-- until, as U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk's said at the time, "We're
eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked."
The story of those critical days is told in an absorbing new exhibition in
this city's Florida International Museum titled The Cuban Missile Crisis: When
the Cold War Got Hot.
In several galleries of displays, visitors follow the progress of the crisis
while looking upon such artifacts as a 35-foot-long Soviet SA-2 missile; the
silvery engineering model of the USSR's Sputnik, the world's first artificial
satellite; film canisters from the U-2 spy planes that took the telling photos
of missile sites under construction in Cuba; Cuban and American photos and
newspaper pages dating to the period.
Also on view are many props from the new movie, "Thirteen Days,"
starring Kevin Costner, which opened Dec. 25 in New York and Los Angeles, and
opens in January elsewhere. The film is based on Robert F. Kennedy's book of the
same name about the crisis.
Ranging beyond a narrow focus on the crisis, the museum paints a picture of
the Cold War atmosphere. "The (exhibition) is very broad," said Wayne
Atherholt, vice president of the museum and the person who put together the
show. "The idea is to immerse people in 1962."
One of the galleries, therefore, is a replicated fallout shelter, complete
with flashing red lights, radiation measuring devices, tins of emergency rations
and a Civil Defense first aid kit, a pathetic little box containing a small tube
of burn ointment and a few Band-Aids, of questionable value in a nuclear attack.
Other galleries impart a flavor of life in the 1960s: a juke box playing the
hits of the era; a living room with a marshmallow sofa, a black-and-white
television and magazines like Photoplay; a kitchen with appliances of the
period; a Hoover vacuum cleaner whose design was inspired by Sputnik. Our
preoccupation with the Cold War is evident in a nuclear sub toy, a bar sign
urging "Try Our Atomic Cocktail," and ads for movies like "Atomic
City."
There's even a classroom bulletin board re-created by Joan Hammill, a
third-grade teacher at St. Petersburg's Childs Park Elementary School in 1962. "I
made a photo of the board and kept the original materials," she said. The
display features a silvery aluminum-foil rocket and other space-age designs made
by her young students.
A timeline introduces museum visitors to the crisis, which is delineated day
by day. It starts with the first reports of missile sites being prepared in Cuba
and follows with President John F. Kennedy's sobering announcement to the nation
of the situation, the shooting down of an American U-2 plane over Cuba, the
messages and negotiations between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev,
the naval blockade imposed by the United States and the almost unbearable
tension that followed as millions wondered whether it would lead to war.
Little-known facts emerge, according to Atherholt: That Fidel Castro, for
instance, was so angered by Khrushchev's agreement not to attack U-2 planes that
he defiantly went to a anti-aircraft site to shoot one down himself;
fortunately, no U-2 planes flew that day.
The huge SA-2 missile will be housed in its own gallery with its nose
pointed directly at a replicated window of a home. Said Atherholt, "It
makes a statement: a Soviet missile aimed right at America's living room."
The missile is not yet in place; it is to be delivered by the Defense
Intelligence Agency after its war head is removed.
The last gallery is devoted to Cuba today. Museum personnel went to Havana
to obtain current and historical materials from the Cuban Museum of the
Revolution, the National Library and other sources. They also bought dozens of
well-executed paintings from street vendors.
The props used in the "Thirteen Days" movie are extraordinarily
detailed. One is a multipage dossier on Khrushchev, another on Aleksandr Fomin,
the KGB chief in Washington who was a go-between in the negotiations. A Zenith
radio from the period was used, along with a Civil Defense siren and bus
posters. Each character was supplied with well-researched personal items, such
as the Pall Mall cigarettes smoked by Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
Other exhibits include a Russian general's uniform, a pressure suit and
helmet used by U-2 pilot Al Rand and a hat said to have belonged to Raul Castro
("We have no proof of that," said Atherholt).
The Cuban Missile Crisis show, which will run at least through May, ties in
well with the museum's extensive permanent exhibition on JFK. Admission to the
crisis exhibition (only) is $5.95 for adults, $4.95 for seniors and $3.95 for
students. Admission to all exhibits is $11.95, $10.95 and $5.95, respectively.
The museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.
Museum guests need only to step across the street to visit another new
downtown St. Petersburg attraction, Baywalk. This major entertainment complex,
occupying an entire block, opened in late November.
Baywalk is a virtual clone of the recently opened Centro Ybor entertainment
complex in Tampa's Ybor City across the bay. Both bear many similarities to
Miami's CocoWalk, which was developed by some members of the same team.
Already, the 24-screen Muvico movie theater complex within Baywalk is
proving highly successful, according to general manager Jill Connolly, because
until now the nearest theaters to downtown and eastern St. Petersburg have been
a 35-minute drive away. All seating is stadium type.
As in Centro Ybor, the second level is devoted entirely to dining
establishments. Ground-floor shops, gathered around an attractive plaza, are
mostly targeted to women. Many operations are still moving in, but Connolly
promised that "80 percent will be open by Christmas."
All should be in place by February 2001.
Copyright © 2000 by The Baltimore Sun. | 