For my monthly “Wayback Machine” column, let’s go back to October 1962. Some of you may have memories of the huge news item of that month – the Cuban Missile Crisis. This 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union commenced when President Kennedy received intelligence that, in response to the U.S. deployment of nuclear missiles in Europe, the Soviets were in the process of arming Cuba with nuclear missiles. The confrontation is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear war. The severity of the issue became public on October 22, when President Kennedy announced on national television that the U.S. was imposing on Cuba a naval “quarantine” (a euphemism for a blockade, which under international law had the effect of declaring war).  After a few days of secret negotiations, on October 28, the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle and remove their existing missiles.  

I am always in search of personal histories as a complement to the newspaper stories of the day. I imagine a number of you, in a certain age range, have memories of those 13 days in October. I was fortunate to find an illuminating story from a friend of mine who grew up in Arlington, and was in grade school in 1962. His father, who worked for the CIA at the time, arranged for the family to “take a trip” to Pennsylvania for a few days during the height of the crisis. Such a story makes one think that the communal anxiety was rooted in a real possibility of attack! As it turns out, the fear of nuclear attack had already manifested itself in the Virginia electoral process that fall, with this headline at the end of October: “Crisis Adds Emphasis To Virginia Ballot.” There was a constitutional amendment on the upcoming ballot, posing this remarkable question: In case of enemy nuclear attack upon the soil of Virginia by nuclear fission or fission bombs or devices, could the General Assembly be authorized to pass legislation with less than a majority of members present? 

October has always been a busy time in Arlington politics, with County Board elections every year. County politics in 1962 involved three viable parties nominating candidates who each had a good chance of winning. This third party was known as “ABC” – Arlingtonians for a Better County. ABC gained traction in the mid-1950’s when the  progressive faction of Democrats created an independent party to select candidates to run for the County Board and the School Board. In 1962 Leo Urbanske, a member of the ABC, was the County Board incumbent running for office. One opponent characterized Urbanske as being too “pro-business”, while the other candidate lambasted him for being “anti-business.” At a debate in October, Urbanske, with a sense of humor, noted the irony by saying “You can’t win.” As an aside, you will have to wait for my November history column to find out about the 1962 election results for the County Board, and for three constitutional amendments on the ballot (yes, as in 2026, there were three constitutional amendments in 1962 in play). 

Meanwhile, for other local news in October 1962, there were many headlines about real estate development and transportation issues: “Rosslyn Boom Laid to Zoning”, “Work on Virginia’s Section of Beltway Still on Schedule”, and “Green Route for 66 Is Given Green Light.” The news about I-66 captured the difficulty in accepting any pathway for “the interstate highway connecting Washington to Strasburg.” The County Board approved the route that eventually was built (the Board was studying a map with one route highlighted in green, as opposed to blue and red routes). The vote was 2 to 0, as one member was absent; another, Leo Urbanske, did not like any of the routes, so he abstained; and Ernest Wilt recused himself due to a financial interest in the service station that was being saved by choosing the Green Route. On a lighter note about events in October 1962, the Washington–Lee Generals defeated the Yorktown Patriots 13 to 6, “before more than 6,000 cheering fans at War Memorial Stadium,” and the local movie theaters were showing “North By Northwest” and “Spartacus.”