Crateology was the 'science' of identifying the contents of Soviet shipments to the Island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

carried out by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Crateology has declined as a discipline in recent years due to globalisation and the decline in the usage of custom made wooden crates in favour of standard metal

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

s. Though making the world intra-connected and smaller, globalisation has resulted in the loss of not merely a science, but a 'beautiful art form'.D. Salisbury (2009). The Crate Escape: Packaging and its Typonomy and Taxonomy Throughout The Cold War.

References

Cold War military history of the Soviet Union Cuba–United States relations History of Cuba 1962 in Cuba History of the foreign relations of the United States Presidency of John F. Kennedy Nikita Khrushchev Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear warfare Cuba–Soviet Union relations Soviet Union–United States relations {{Mil-hist-stub

See also

References