From Missiles to Markets to Manhattan: How Half a Century of U.S. Power Plays Led to 9/11

Part 1 — The First Domino: Missiles, Secrets, and the Cold War Web (1961–1963)

It started not in Cuba, but in Turkey.

By the autumn of 1961, John F. Kennedy had been in the Oval Office for barely nine months. His generals proposed a bold plan: station U.S. nuclear-armed Jupiter missiles in Turkey — minutes from the Soviet border. By early 1962, launch pads near Izmir were operational, spotted by Soviet reconnaissance.

Premier Nikita Khrushchev saw them as a loaded gun aimed at Moscow. His countermove: send Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba under the guise of “tractor parts” shipments. Fidel Castro agreed immediately.

October 14, 1962 — The U-2 Photographs
Inside CIA headquarters, analysts huddled over grainy black-and-white images. Red grease-pencil circles marked missile sites under construction. “They’ll be operational in under ten days,” one warned. The next thirteen days became the most dangerous standoff of the Cold War.

A year later, in October 1963, CIA surveillance in Mexico City recorded Lee Harvey Oswald entering the Soviet Embassy and meeting Cuban officials. One month later, JFK was dead in Dallas. The Warren Commission said Oswald acted alone. Others weren’t so sure.

The 2025 Files
In March 2025, 63,000 pages of previously classified JFK documents were released. They confirmed the CIA tracked Oswald long before Dallas, especially in Mexico City. They revealed Kennedy’s distrust of the Agency and detailed U.S. infiltration of Cuba — at least 14 Cuban diplomats on the CIA payroll.

No smoking gun — but the pattern was clear: brinkmanship, covert ops, and secrets buried for decades.

Pop Culture Mirror

• Dr. Strangelove (1964) — Satire of nuclear brinkmanship that felt uncomfortably close to the real 1962 crisis.

• From Russia with Love (1963) — Bond glamourized Cold War spy games; in real life, Mexico City wasn’t so suave.

Part 2 — From Gold to Oil to Hostages (1971–2001)

On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon calmly told Americans the dollar would no longer be tied to gold. Behind the scenes, Treasury Secretary William Simon and Henry Kissinger struck a deal with Saudi Arabia: sell oil only in dollars, invest the profits in U.S. markets, and America would guarantee Saudi security. The petrodollar was born.

Oil-importing nations now needed dollars, locking in global demand for U.S. currency.

1979 — Tehran Erupts
Iran’s revolution toppled the Shah. Ayatollah Khomeini declared America “the Great Satan” and condemned the petrodollar system. That November, Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

At the same time, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. The U.S., via Pakistan’s ISI, armed the Mujahideen — a move that would come back to haunt it.

The 1990s — New Threats, Same Arteries
The Soviet collapse left America unmatched. But the militants it once funded in Afghanistan formed new networks. Al-Qaeda bombed the WTC in 1993, U.S. embassies in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000.

Iran, still outside the petrodollar system, built its own financial workarounds. Every loophole chipped at U.S. leverage.

Pop Culture Mirror

• Three Days of the Condor (1975) — Oil conspiracy thriller mirroring real U.S.–Saudi deals.

• Spies Like Us (1985) — Cold War CIA bumblers nearly start WWIII.

• The Delta Force (1986) — Chuck Norris cleans up a hijacking based on a real hostage crisis.

• Rambo III (1988) — U.S.-armed Mujahideen as freedom fighters; ironic in hindsight.

Part 3 — The Blowback: From Proxy Wars to 9/11

By 1989, Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan. The Mujahideen didn’t fade away. Some, like Osama bin Laden, saw America’s presence in the Middle East as the next target. Al-Qaeda’s mission: drive the U.S. out of Muslim lands.

Through the ’90s, attacks escalated — the WTC bombing, embassy bombings, USS Cole. Warnings piled up. Washington underestimated the networked nature of the threat.

September 11, 2001
8:46 a.m. — Flight 11 hits the North Tower.
9:03 a.m. — Flight 175 strikes the South Tower.
9:37 a.m. — Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon.
A fourth plane goes down in Pennsylvania after passengers fight back.

Nearly 3,000 dead. The heart of U.S. finance and military power struck in one morning.

Pop Culture Mirror

• The Siege (1998) — Terror attacks in New York; eerily predictive.

• Three Kings (1999) — Gulf War chaos tied to oil politics.

• Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) — Comedic retelling of the CIA’s Mujahideen funding.

• Team America (2004) — Puppet satire of U.S. global interventionism.