City Research Online

Abstract

This article analyses hundreds of letters that US women wrote to Nikita Khrushchev and Nina Khrushcheva during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The sense of imminent nuclear threat prompted many women to engage with Cold War politics and directly address world leaders. Drawing on their traditional gender roles as mothers and wives, letter-writers were emboldened to confront political leaders about matters of war and peace, advocate for cross-border dialogue, and stress Americans’ and Soviets’ shared humanity. Through the prism of letters, the article explores the impact of the Cuban crisis on US society, the importance of letter-writing in female political activity, and women’s understanding of the Cold War.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Publisher Keywords:	Women, Gender, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War, USA, Soviet, Khrushchev, letters
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics E History America > E151 United States (General) H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of International Politics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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