(CNN) An old map of Cuba has been sold at an auction in Boston -- but it's much more than a map.

It's a historic artifact from some of the darkest days of the Cold War, when Washington and Moscow reached a standoff that could have led to a nuclear doomsday.

President John F. Kennedy consulted the map -- which shows dozens of potential military targets across Cuba -- as he was considering whether to launch a US attack during the Cuban missile crisis.

The 1962 map shows nine potential US targets in Cuba.

RFK: 80 million Americans could have died

The world held its breath for nearly two weeks in October 1962, as tensions rose between the United States and Soviet Union. The standoff started after the discovery of Soviet nuclear missile sites in pro-Soviet Cuba -- which put millions of Americans in range of weapons that could hit US cities within minutes.

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