The Cuban Missile Crisis

Before the late 1950s Cuba was an unlikely setting for a major superpower confrontation. Ever since the Spanish-American War of the late nineteenth century this small island had effectively been a protectorate of the United States.

Although Castro successfully defeated the invasion force, the Bay of Pigs experience, and growing concerns about continuing American attempts to remove him from power, made the Cuban leader receptive towards further offers of Soviet military support. The end result was one of the most dangerous crises of the Cold War era when, a year after the Bay of Pigs, Khrushchev offered to deploy Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Castro accepted and by the summer of 1962 Soviet ships were delivering the necessary materials, including missiles, to their new allies. Hoping that a future public announcement about the presence of Soviet missiles stationed a mere 160 kilometres from the American heartland would be a substantial propaganda coup, the installation of these weapons was undertaken in secrecy.

However, in mid-October 1962 American U-2 spy planes flying over Cuba spotted the ballistic missile sites under construction. Crisis was now imminent. Although the Americans had already deployed missiles in Turkey and both Moscow and Washington had the capability of inflicting serious damage on each other with their inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the psychological impact of Soviet nuclear installations in the Caribbean — as well as the secrecy of the operation — persuaded the Kennedy administration of the need to take action. Kennedy formed a special inner cabinet of advisers, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExCom), to discuss the situation. They initially

see Chapter 6

protectorates

Territories administered by an imperial state without full annexation taking place, and where delegated powers typically remain in the hands of a local ruler or rulers. Examples include French Morocco and the unfederated states in Malaya.

Fidelistas

The name used for the Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro's leadership. After a long guerrilla campaign the Fidelistas eventually toppled the Batista regime on 1 January 1959.

see Chapter 16

Bay of Pigs

The site on 17 April 1961 of an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles opposed to the Castro regime. It had the support of the American government and the CIA was heavily involved in its planning. By 20 April most exiles were either killed or captured. The failed invasion was the first major foreign policy act of the Kennedy administration and provoked anti-American demonstrations in Latin America and Europe and further embittered American-Cuban relations.

U-2 spy planes

An American high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft used to fly over Soviet and other hostile territories.

inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM)

Any supersonic missile that has a range of at least 6,500 kilometres and follows a ballistic trajectory after launching. The Soviet-American SALT I Agreements limited the number of ICBMs that each side could have.

United Nations (UN)

An international organization established after the Second World War to replace the League of Nations. Since its establishment in 1945, its membership has grown to 192 countries.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Established by the North Atlantic Treaty (4 April 1949) signed by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Greece and Turkey entered the alliance in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955. Spain became a full member in 1982. In 1999 the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined in the first post-Cold War expansion, increasing the membership to nineteen countries.

considered several options, including a possible military invasion of Cuba and aerial attacks against the missile bases. In the end, though, the Kennedy admini­stration chose to ‘quarantine’ Cuba by erecting a naval blockade to stop any further Soviet shipments reaching their destination. On 22 October, Kennedy went public in a televised address, disclosing the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba and announcing that a blockade was in force against all ships bound for the island. He also demanded the removal of the missiles.

For the next few days the United States and Soviet Union appeared to be moving towards a nuclear war. The Kennedy administration took its case to the UN and prepared for air strikes and a massive invasion of Cuba. The Castro government called up more than a quarter of a million Cubans ready to repel an American invasion, and the Soviet forces on the island, with their nuclear-tipped tactical missiles, were placed on full alert. In the United States, a wave of panic buying swept across the country as people tried to prepare for a possible nuclear holocaust. In the Soviet Union, some news about the crisis reached the public, causing a more limited panic. In Western Europe America’s NATO allies prepared for the implica­tions of a potential nuclear war that might easily spread to Berlin and elsewhere.

After some bargaining, under increasingly tense conditions, the crisis was finally resolved. What happened was that on 26 October Khrushchev offered to withdraw his missiles from Cuba in return for an American pledge not to invade the island. While Kennedy was considering this compromise, the Soviet leader suddenly made another demand: that the Americans must also remove their missiles from Turkey. Meanwhile, the situation was made more ominous as an American U-2 was shot down over Cuba on 27 October. On the same day, however, Robert Kennedy, the attorney general and the president’s brother, struck a deal with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin whereby Soviet missiles would be removed from Cuba in return for a subsequent, unpublicized, removal of missiles from Turkey. On Sunday, 28 October, Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba. Under close American surveillance, Soviet ships took the missiles back home.

Debating the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis remains one of the most widely written-about confrontations of the Cold War. For various views on the reasons behind the Soviet decision to place the missiles in Cuba, on the decision-making during the crisis and on the impact of the crisis, readers should consult A. Fursenko and T Naftali, 'One Hell of a Gamble' (New York, 1997), Michael Beschloss, Kennedy versus Khrushchev: The Crisis Years (New York, 1991) and Graham T Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Cambridge, 1999). For an in-depth 'insider's'view of decision-making, an indispensable source is E. R. May and P Zelikow, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Cambridge, 1997).