If the Cuban Missile Crisis had escalated to a full scale nuclear war,
how many people (of all countries) would have been killed (initial
attack and fallout) and wounded? Describe some scenarios in which the
U.S. could have possibly entered a full scale nuclear war.

Given a full scale nuclear war, virtually the entire world population
would have been wiped out.

Many of those who survived the initial blasts would have been killed
by the aftermath of radiation poisoning, etc.

The U.S. would have been one of the main protagonists after the first
missile had been fired even though that incident may have been a
mistake or ill-judged.

Yes, IF it came to a full scale nuclear war, but that is a very big "if".
The US was in a strong position to bomb the bejesus out of Cuba
without nukes, if the communists had continued with their plans.  The
US government certainly was considering an invasion.  As a GI in
Germany at the time, I and my unit - an evacuation hospital -  got
yellow fever shots.
Just occurred to me, perhaps as a subtle move to underline
preparedness, one that surely became known to the Russians.

I recall reading a book with a similar situation when I was in high
school. I can't recall if it was a theoretical "what if" based on
Cuban Missile Crisis or some other atomic/nuclear warfare situation
but the book was titled "On the Beach". I can't even remember the
author but the book was about people dealing with the fact that they
knew they would soon be dead from the fallout of the nuclear war. It
was a good read, and if you are interested in the subject, not just
the statistics, I recommend taking a look. - artqs

Hiya
"The US was in a strong position to bomb the bejesus out of Cuba
without nukes",

Yes maybe but in the time it would take the US to launch this attack ,
the then soviet union could have launced Nuclear Missiles at either
Florida (from Cuba) or Western Europe (from Eastern Europe) either
scenario resulting in casualities of up to 10 Million people. (and I
am not counting casualities on the Soviet Side had US decided to
launch Nuclear missiles from Turkey)

The scary thing is that there were plenty of Generals in the Pentagon
who would not have hesitated to launch a first nuclear strike.

Luckily "cooler heads prevailed" in that both John and Robert Kennedy
took all steps to prevent a nuclear holocaust.

One measure of the increase fear in the US at the time were reports
from Catholic priests of a large increase in the number of people
going to confession.

One thing is certain if the Cuban Missile Crisis had turned into a
real conflict , it would have made 9/11 look like a Sunday picnic.

Regards

Mongolia

Dear Artqs

Another interesting source of information regarding the "joys" of
nuclear war is the BBC film "The War Game" The BBC made the film in
the late Sixties.
Unlike later movies such as The Day After" and "Threads" it deals with
the subject in a more documentry style.

It attempted to protray what would have happened to typlical 1960's
communities in South East England at the time in the event of a
nuclear strike by the USSR.

The film was so graphic that to my knowledge it was never shown on BBC TV
but instead was distributed to Cinemas as an X-rated film. 

Regards

Mongolia

Magnolia and Top19,
Correction about the other question.  It was unlocked for a while, and
locked again about half an hour ago.
NOte however:  The email notification system is defunct, so you will
have to check up on your questions to see if anything has been posted.

Re: this question.
The US observed developments in Cuba from aerial photos and IMHO would
have been able to destroy the Russian rockets before they were ready
to fire, without attacking Russia directly.  The interest in
establishing a rocket base in Cuba suggests that the Russians did not
have dependable intercontinental missles.
Anyway, we will never know, luckily.

Cheers, Myoarin