"Yes or no—don't wait for the translation—yes or no?"

On October 25, 1962, the tenth day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson pressed Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin at the UN Security Council to admit there were Soviet missiles in Cuba. When Zorin refused to answer, Stevenson said he was "prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over," then displayed aerial reconnaissance photos of the sites.

The moment, broadcast to the world, helped win global opinion during the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war.

Was this diplomacy at its best, or theater at its finest?

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