The key political-military decision was to establish a naval blockad of Cuba
as opposed to launching an invasion or air strikes on the missile batterries.Although the tactic was successful, the president later stated that the probability of nuclear disaster had been "between one out of three and even. A second
major crisis occurred in 1973 during the Arab-Israeli W ar when Moscow raised the possibility of armed intervention in the conflict. The United Stated responded
quickly by putting its nuclear forces on alert, thus signaling its resolve to oppose any such action.