In the film Command and Control, directed by Robert Kenner, explores and reports a terrible accident at the Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980. This documentary does not only explores this crisis, but also exposes the truth about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. This documentary shows what could happen when these weapons of mass destruction, built to protect us, threaten our own power and destroy us. This documentary may be very much about the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, for the same premise. The Cuban Missile Crisis not only affected how Americans viewed the United States, but it greatly placed the United States at risk of nuclear war, the atomic bomb being a creation that was primarily in the hands of the United States. This documentary and the Cuban Missile Crisis show the impact weapons of mass destruction had on Americans, and still have on America to this day. These weapons can not only be used to protect the United States, but they can also ruin it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay In the documentary, on September 19, 1980, a missile, which was being kept around for possible trade negotiations with Russia, became the source of a ticking nuclear explosion, when Propellant Transfer Team member, Dave Powell, decided to repairing the missile's oxygen tank with a ratchet, which knocked a plug directly into the side of the Titan II, creating a hole that began to fill with fuel. According to a missile combat crew and the Propellant Transfer Team, many safety protocols were used to ensure this missile did not explode. Allan Childers, part of the Missile Combat Crew, said, “You had to be ready to destroy an entire civilization, and we were trained on that” (Command and Control). Unfortunately, due to the Dave Powell accident, the scene quickly turned to panic, not only because a detonated missile would be extremely massive and extremely deadly, but also because this demonstrated that the United States sometimes puts itself in situations dangerous due to the pride incident of the destructive weapons they literally keep close to home. Related to this, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred when the United States discovered that the Soviets had nuclear weapons around Cuba. In response, President Kennedy ordered the United States to create a naval blockade to resolve the crisis. What followed was an international crisis that put the United States in danger of nuclear war. Thomas G. Paterson concludes that this moment "should not be held up as a supreme display of crisis management, calculated control, and statesmanship, but rather explored as a case of near misses..." (Paterson, 252). When Kennedy approved the naval blockade of Cuba, B-52 bombers, loaded with nuclear weapons, were ready for a possible invasion of Cuba, while Soviet ships rushed towards the American armada (253). This near-nuclear war has shown that the United States sometimes uses nuclear weapons too quickly and too proudly. Before the crisis began at the Titan II missile complex in Arkansas, many believed they had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the Soviets. Command and Control author Eric Schlosser stated, "At one point we thought we would only need 50 to 200 nuclear weapons to completely annihilate the Soviet Union, and by the mid-1960s we had 32,000 nuclear weapons" (Command and Control). When the crisis began there was, rightly, apanic that spread to everyone who knew. Not only were they scared, these men being only in their late teens, early twenties, but they were led to believe that these nuclear weapons were safe. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown explained that the Titan II missiles in 1980 were “old and much more prone to accidents” (Command and Control). The only reason this missile existed in the first place was because it was to be used as a “bargaining chip” for the Soviets (Command and Control). This bargaining chip, which doesn't seem like a big deal, is essentially what almost caused a major disaster in the United States. It was revealed that all decisions would be made by General Lloyd Leavitt, who “had no missile experience whatsoever,” I am aware of” (Command and Control). Three hours had already passed when the fuel tank readings started to go negative and still nothing had been done. However, it wasn't until 1.40am that there was a plan. The plan was to reach the control room, take the missile, open a valve and vent the tank to prevent it from collapsing and exploding. General Leavitt pushed the idea and this idea ended in an explosion. After the explosion, Sid King said that the Air Force would not even admit the existence of a nuclear warhead. Colonel John Moser, commander of the 308th Strategic Missile Wing, stated that they were not authorized to inform the local population that they had a warhead on the missile and that they had to keep it secret, instead lying that they had failed to find it and where it came from to avoid the embarrassment and ridicule of having such a weapon in a dangerous situation in the first place (Command and Control). The Cuban Missile Crisis first began when the Soviets placed missiles in Cuba, missiles that “could carry nuclear warheads and destroy American cities” (Paterson, 253). President John F. Kennedy had to think fast and called an ExComm council to decide to surround Cuba with a naval blockade. However, events that occurred before the Cuban Missile Crisis are likely what helped escalate this dangerous confrontation that could have ended in nuclear war. Prior to this event, the United States was trying to paralyze the Castro government, and it was stated that the United States would “respond promptly with military force” (Paterson, 254) if necessary to help Cuba. The United States, when Kennedy was in power, they had a “Kennedy team 'can-do' style and an exaggerated sense of American power” (Paterson, 255). This sense of legitimate power is what created the crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a study in “near misses, flawed instructions, confusions, miscalculations, and exhaustion” (Paterson, 255). When the crisis persisted, ExComm participants tried to help Kennedy negotiate with the Soviets, however, Kennedy "showed little interest in the negotiations and even asked, “How long would it take to mount the airstrikes?” (Paterson, 255) In the tense days that followed, the former Soviet Union ambassador warned that if the United States killed their technicians, they would have to retaliate Kennedy had set the course of events, but he no longer had control over them'" (Paterson, 256). Although the United States had imposed a naval blockade on Cuba, it had not informed the Soviets for days where the line lay quarantine, which would have proved catastrophic if Soviet captains had accidentally entered the area (Paterson, 256. As tensions between the two powers increased, a U-2 was shot down in Cuba by a missile, and another U -2 flew over Union territory.