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Hi. As I'm more of a fiction writer than a military buff, I'm hoping someone can help me figure this out. Obviously there's many threads on the CMC for me to plow through as I research, but in the mean-time... :)

I'm trying to figure out a scenario in which the Cuban Missile Crisis leads to the destruction of Washington DC, but NOT a full-scale nuclear war. What events would lead up to that? Obviously if JFK listens to the JOC and invades... but assuming that the missiles went off...
1 - Is it reasonable to believe they would be aimed at Washington? Do the missiles in Cuba even reach DC?
2 - What possible circumstance could prevent the US from retaliating against the USSR with nuclear weapons? Considering intense nationalism, fear, etc. Intervention of the UN? Or once DC is destroyed (even partially), is nuclear war unavoidable?

Alternatively... is there another scenario that would believably lead to the destruction of Washington some time in the 50s or early 60s? Something in the Truman or Eisenhower administration?
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