Yet 1989 was the year when the storm clouds began to gather over Cuba. The fall of the Berlin Wall, 35 years ago this month, started the domino effect that ended with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

(CNN) -- An old map of Cuba is up for auction in Boston -- but it's much more than a map. It's a historic artifact from some of the darkest days of the Cold War, when Washington and Moscow reached ...

Yet 1989 was the year when the storm clouds began to gather over Cuba. The fall of the Berlin Wall, 35 years ago this month, started the domino effect that ended with the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

President John F. Kennedy consulted the map – which shows dozens of potential military targets across Cuba – as he was considering whether to launch a US attack during the Cuban missile crisis.

Squint at this map just right, with a pair of wistful eyes — Juan Jose Valdes’s eyes — and it reveals more than shapes and symbols on a grid of latitude and longitude. There is the warmth of ...