Cuban missile crisis and Cold War tensions

Cuban Missile Crisis

There are two views, as with any conflict or issue, on the reasons and reactions of the major players in the Cuban Missile Crisis that took place at the end of October 1962. The crisis pitted two world powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, against each other in what many describe as the closest the world has come to World War III and a nuclear holocaust.

In order to understand the Crisis, it is important to first understand the events leading up to the crisis. This paper examines the background of the crisis from the Cuban/Soviet point-of-view in depth. Toward the end of the paper, the United States' perspective of the crisis is discussed with regard to what is described previously from the perspective of supporters of the Castro regime and the now collapsed Soviet Union.

Background

After the devastation that the bombs left in Japan at the end of World War II, the Japanese vowed to never become a nuclear state. However, because the United States occupied Japan, it is able to secretly stockpile atomic bombs on the Japanese island of Okinawa as early as July of 1954. The reason for the move is not to use the bombs against Japan, but to use them against the Soviet Union, whose mainland is less than 400 miles away. In 1956 the United States begins stockpiling nuclear bombs and sending ballistic missiles to other Japanese islands. The reason is that in the event of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, Okinawa would be an obvious target. In the same year, the United States deploys nuclear bombs to the Puerto Rico, 150 miles from Cuba.

During this time, the Soviet Union is also stockpiling nuclear missiles. The trend continues as the United States begins placing intermediate nuclear bombs, capable of reaching the Soviet Union's major Western cities, in the Philippines, Greenland France and Turkey, which borders the Soviet Union, Korea and Taiwan. The year is 1959 and the United States government lies to the people and the United Nations, denying accusations that the United States is deploying nuclear weapons worldwide. At this point the Soviet Union is surrounded on all borders.

In 1959 the Soviet Union deploys the missile that they intend to send to Cuba. During the same time frame it deploys the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile has sufficient range to be launched in northern Russia and reach the northern United States.

Upheaval in Cuba - the Bay of Pigs

On New Year's Day 1959, the revolutionary Fidel Castro leads his soldiers into a Santiago de Cuba barracks. The 5,000 soldiers surrender without Castro's soldiers firing a shot. General Fulgencio Batista, a man who had murdered over 20,000 workers and peasants, flees Cuba, leading his supporters to Miami, Florida, while Cubans imprisoned and deported by Batista are welcomed back home. Construction on a new Cuban state begins aimed at providing better rights for peasants and workers, yet it is not a declared socialist state. The new state is also committed to agrarian reform. With this, the United States and Cuba establish diplomatic relations; however two Congressmen attack the new Cuban government for its trying and executing of war criminals. By January 21, 1959 Castro takes to the streets condemning U.S. policy and its financial support and political non-interference with General Batista, Cuba's now ex-dictator. Castro accuses the United States of supporting a campaign against the people of Cuba, who want economic and political freedom. Castro vows to cancel the foreign monopolies brought into the country by Batista. By February 1959, Castro becomes the Prime Minister of Cuba. In March, Castro makes good on his promise to rid Cuba of monopolies and nationalizes the Cuban Telephone Company, an affiliate of ITT. Within two days, Cuba demands that the United States leave its military base at Guantanomo. The United States refuses and forcibly leases the 116-square-kilometer piece of land for $2,000. Meanwhile, Castro reduces rates on rent, phone service and medicine, making life easier for Cubans.

In April 1959, Castro visits the United States on behalf of the new Cuban Republic with the intent of meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower refuses; however Vice President Richard M. Nixon meets with Castro. After the meeting Nixon reports that he believes that Castro is a Communist. In spite of reports, the United States Senate and the majority of the public believe that Castro is good for Cuba and signs an agreement offering technical cooperation for Castro's goal of reforming its agrarian sector. Castro quickly removes foreign landowners, turning over the land to the Cubans who would otherwise not be able to own land. Other countries' landowners agree to settlements while the American landowners refuse any negotiations.

In July 1959, amidst diplomatic chaos the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) puts a contract on Castro's life. Though Castro is aware of this, he continues to attempt to come to a peaceful settlement with the United States. In October of the same year, three United States covert raids attack sugar mills in the Pinar del Rio and Camguey provinces. Cuba attempts to buy airplanes to use to defend itself. At first, Britain agrees, but withdraws the offer once the United States discovers the agreement and warns Britain against it.

The following year in January, Cuba takes back 70,000 acres of land that U.S. sugar companies own. The United States responds with military bombers camouflaged as counterrevolutionary Cuban aircraft. The bombers drop napalm bombs on oil refineries and sugar cane fields, followed by bombings on Havana. The damage to the fields and to Havana is intense. The bombings go on as Castro and Soviet Deputy Prime Minster Anastas Mikoyan sign trade and loan agreements and Cuban authorities continue to seek peaceful solutions with the United States. The United States refuses to enter negotiations. Instead the United States plans to invade and overthrow the Cuban government

In May of 1960, Cuba and the Soviet Union re-establish normal diplomatic relations, a relationship severed after General Batista's coup in 1952. Part of the trade agreement included oil from the Soviet Union; however when the first shipment arrives the Soviet Union finds that all of the oil refineries are owned by U.S. companies and under orders not to process Soviet oil. The act paralyzes Cuba. In addition, the U.S. Congress has terminated selling America's oil to Cuba as well as eliminating Cuba's sugar quota. In response, Cuba nationalizes the Texaco, Esso and Shell refineries and all American business and commercial property. President Eisenhower threatens military action. The Soviet Union not only agrees to defend Cuba, but agrees to buy the sugar that the United States has cut off. China agrees to help Cuba and later Czechoslovakia sends help.

In the meantime, the new Cuban government has converted army barracks into more than 10,000 new schools and a program of urban reform guarantees Cuban workers home ownership. In addition, the Cubans have universally armed all workers, including women, to defend the country. Rumors of an impending American attack on Cuba are rampant and denials by the Eisenhower administration are rampant as well. The assassination attempts against Castro continue as President John F. Kennedy takes office.

A white paper is issued, declaring Cuba a Soviet satellite. Should Cuba break off ties with the Soviet Union, the United States promises to aid Cuba's "free" government.

The invasion of Cuba began in April 1961 in direct violation of a Charter issued by the United Nations, Charter of the Organization of American States and the Rio Treaty. Though the invasion was obvious, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave an emphatic "no" to the question of whether the United States was or had plans to attack Cuba.

On April 18, Kennedy receives a letter from the Soviet Khrushchev advising that it was not too late to avoid the irreparable and that the Soviet Union's position was that it would render Cubans all the help necessary. Kennedy calls off the attack, while still denying involvement.

Following the Bay-of-Pigs incident and Cuba's victory, Castro again attempted to make peace with America to no avail. In the meantime, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union are strained over American and Soviet-occupied city of Berlin.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

On New Year's day 1962, Cuba provides U.S. intelligence with reliable information on the extent of Soviet defense deliveries. The missiles that the United States has deployed to Turkey become operational. The fatality projections for each missile are one million civilians. Khrushchev realizes that the missiles are pointed at the Soviet Union. To keep the United States at bay, he considers deploying nuclear weapons to Cuba. Khrushchev discusses the idea of sending missiles to Cuba and is met with opposition, yet he sends a mission to Cuba to ascertain whether Castro would agree.

Throughout May 1962, the United States military began an exercise designed to intimidate and to practice for a full military invasion of Cuba. In June, deliberations between Cuba and Moscow begin over the deployment of Soviet missiles. The Soviets propose a force of 24 medium-range ballistic missiles and 16 intermediate-range launchers, each equipped with two missiles and a single nuclear warhead. In addition, the Soviets send four elite regiments, twenty-four advanced SA-2 surface-to-air missile batteries, 42 MiG-21 interceptors, 42 IL-28 bombers, 12 Komar-class missile boats and coastal defense cruise missiles. Castro agrees in July 1962. The formal agreement is renewable every five years and the missiles and maintenance is left to the Soviets. In mid-July 1962 Soviet cargo ships begin moving out of the Black Sea for Cuba and are spotted by American aerial reconnaissance. Meanwhile 11 CIA terrorist teams infiltrate Cuba.

Up until now, the United States is hopeful that the Castro regime will crumble from within. However, intelligence suggests otherwise. The SGA advises President Kennedy that there is little possibility for overthrowing the Cuban government through internal dissent. Only direct U.S. military intervention can succeed. Kennedy authorizes development of aggressive plans, but no open military involvement could take place.

In August, Cuba's Minister of Industries, Che Guevara and a close associate of Castro, Emilio Navarro meet with Khrushchev urge him to go public about the missile deployment. He refuses.

On August 29, 1962, a U-2 surveillance flight shows air defense missiles at eight sites within Cuba. In the first week of September 1962, Kennedy announces that he is not for invading Cuba at this time.

Unknown to the United States, Soviet troops arrive in Cuba in the first week of September. Three weeks later, Attorney General Robert Kennedy meets with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. The Soviet assures the Kennedy that the Soviet Union had no intention of installing surface-to-surface missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy warns that doing so is a violation of the United States' sole right to be the only foreign government allowed to have military forces inside Cuba at Guantanomo.

About that time, the first missiles arrive in Cuba. The first missile site is erected at San Cristobal. The United States becomes aware of the shipments.

These acts threaten Cuban aggression and on September 20, 1962, the United States Senate approves the use of military force against Cuba. Congress approves a bill to cut off aid to any country that allows merchant ships to transport goods to Cuba. In response, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko accuses the United States as creating "war hysteria" in a speech made to the United Nations' General Assembly. Gromyko states that "any sober-minded" person is aware that Cuba could not possibly invade the United States. Cuba has never done anything aggressive against the United States, nor ever will it. Gromyko explains however that should the United States attempt to invade Cuba once again, or to destroy any ships traveling to Cuba, the Soviet Union would stand solidly in defense of Cuba.

The Beginning of Hostilities

On the first day of October 1962, the United States prepares itself to form a military blockade against Cuba. The United States Navy and Air Force under Atlantic Command are ordered to position forces in order to execute the first stage of the air strike.

On October 8, 1962, Cuban President Dortic s, addresses the U.N. General Assembly, calling on the group to condemn the trade embargo against Cuba. He also declares:

If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. I repeat, we have sufficient means with which to defend ourselves; we have indeed our inevitable weapons, the weapons which we would have preferred not to acquire and which we do not wish to employ.

On October 14, 1952, a U-2 aircraft discovers mid-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy learns about the discovery two days later. Discussions include surgical air strikes to full-scale invasions. At the same the U.S. Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee (GMAIC) concludes that there is no evidence of nuclear warheads in Cuba and that the missile installations seem not to be operational.

On the same day the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Foy Kohler meets with Khrushchev. Khrushchev insists that the Soviet Union is only defending Cuba and besides the United States have done the same thing, with their missiles in Turkey on the Soviet border.

On the following day, U.S. spy agencies explain they've seen an advanced SS-5 IRBM site (a missile with a 2,200 nautical mile range, more than twice the range of the SS-4 MRBMs). A Defense Department spokesperson publicly states that that the Pentagon knows nothing about nuclear missiles in Cuba; therefore, no military measures are necessary. In the meantime, the president is briefed (SNIE 11-18-62) that should the United States aggressively attack Cuba, it would likely lead to World War III.

On October 20, 1962, President Kennedy implements a military blockade on Cuba: Nothing is to go in or out of Cuba. U.S. diplomat to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, is vehemently opposed to the blockade as invalid and makes analogies to the new Berlin wall, and point out the U.S. nuclear missiles already operational in Turkey and the U.S. naval base, which stores nuclear bombs, already inside of the sovereign territory of Cuba. Kennedy reprimands Stevenson's objections and declares him incapable of handling negotiations. In the future John McCloy assists Stevenson in his duties as ambassador to the United Nations.

Soon afterward United States' spy agencies discover a nuclear warhead storage bunker at one of Cuba's Medium-range Ballistic Missile sites. It is assumed, though not confirmed that warheads were actually in Cuba.

About the same time the National Security Council threatens any ship breaking the blockade. The first stage is boarding and inspection. Ships that refuse to surrender will be crippled by force.

On October 22, 1962, the United State Department informs NATO allies that there is a Cuban missile crisis. The United States also informs its Allies of aggressive military plans it will engage in. One-eighth of the B-52 nuclear bomber force will be airborne at all times. The military also begins sending out 183 B-47 nuclear bombers to 44 civilian and military airfields. The Air Defense Command disperses 161 aircraft to sixteen bases in nine hours. Reports indicate that all the aircraft, on the ground and in the air, are armed with nuclear weapons.

Later in the day Kennedy addresses the nation. The 17-minute speech warns that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere is an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev responds that the armaments in Cuba are, indeed, only for defensive purposes and that the actions of the United States threaten world peace.

The United States begins low-level reconnaissance flights over Cuba with fighter attack aircraft F-8U and the spy plane RF-101. Cuba and the Soviet Union join together in an effort towards peace and do not make attempts to deter the flyovers. Soviet ships on their way to Cuba slow down or turn around. Of the 19 ships on their way to Cuba only three continue toward the military blockade. One of these, the Bucharest continues its course to Cuba. United States naval ships receive orders not the cripple the ship. Khrushchev agrees to a United Nations' peace proposal, where he must suspend all arms shipments to Cuba. Kennedy refuses the peace proposal requesting the lifting of the military blockade. Under pressure by the United States the United Nations General Secretary sends a message to Khrushchev supporting the blockade and ordering Khrushchev to respect it.

On October 26, 1962, President Kennedy is convinced that a military blockade alone will not force the Soviets to remove missiles from Cuba. He believes that this mission can only be achieved via an invasion or a nuclear deployment trade. He begins applying pressure by increasing the low flyover flights from twice a day to once every two hours. In the meantime, he orders the State Department to prepare to establish a new government in Cuba.

On October 26, 1962 Khrushchev pleads for peace. In a letter he promises to declare his ships free of any armaments if the United States promises not to invade Cuba or support any forces who intends to. The United States interprets the letter as a Soviet offer to remove missiles from Cuba under United Nations inspection in return for an American non-invasion promise. Later that evening, Robert Kennedy has a secret meeting at the Soviet embassy. In the meeting, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin argues that if Soviet missiles are intolerable in Cuba, then American missiles are intolerable in Turkey. President Kennedy agrees to negotiate.

In the meantime, Castro begins defending his country despite pleas from the Cuban Soviet Ambassador not to. Castro dismisses the ambassador's pleas and vows to defend Cuba from a U.S. invasion.

The CIA reports that three of the four SS-4 MRBM sites at San Cristobal and two sites at Sagua la Grande appear to be fully operational. That same morning Khrushchev publicly announces that the Soviet Union is willing to remove missiles from Cuba, if the United States removes missiles from Turkey.

After several incidents, one over Soviet airspace and a couple over Cuba, the U.S. State Department drafts a letter rejecting Khrushchev's nuclear deployment trade. Kennedy, on the other hand, chose to ignore Khrushcev's latest proposal and proceeded to answer the letter of October 26. Robert Kennedy tells Dobryin that the Soviet Union must agree to remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba by tomorrow. If they did not do so, then the United States would remove them. Dobrynin repeats his demand that the United States remove missiles from Turkey. By now, the United States has decided not to make any deals.

In the meantime Fidel Castro agrees to cease building Cuban missile sites, if the United States agrees to end its military blockade. On October 28, Castro extends an invitation to the United Nations Acting Secretary General U. Thant to visit Cuba and he accepts. The next day he informs Adlai Stevenson that Soviet representative Zorin will not respect the military blockade. Fidel Castro meets with Soviet Ambassador Alekseyev for lengthy discussions in the Soviet embassy in Havana. Castro sees the situation as highly alarming.

Khrushchev makes yet another speech on Radio Moscow, that ends the missile crisis. He informs listeners that the Soviet government has ordered the dismantling of so-called offensive weapon, their crating and return to the Soviet Union. Dismantling begins at 5 P.M.

Fidel Castro, who was not consulted prior to the Soviet's order, is livid, but makes five demands five points, that the United States end military and economic blockade, that the United States end all revolutionary and covert activities, that the United States end all air attacks on Cuba, that the United States end all flights over Cuban airspace, and finally that the United States return Guantanamo naval base to Cuba.

In the United States some, such as General Curtis LeMay, believed that the strike should go forward. The Joint Chiefs instructed commanders not to relax their alert procedures as the proposals for peace were probably meant as a stalling tactic. Kennedy orders no incursions over Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff update plans to invade Cuba, though the Soviets were being dismantled.

The United Nations' deal calls for the Soviets to stop shipment to Cuba, while the United States was to stop the blockade. The Soviets complied and went on a step further and began removing weapons, while President Kennedy ordered that the blockade remain in effect. In addition, he ordered new low altitude flights over Cuba. The United Nations warns the United States, but the United States declares that only after all the missiles are removed will the blockade be removed.

The United State and the Soviet Union continued to bicker over the terms of the disarmament and the blockade. Furthermore, the United States does not remove its missiles from Turkey as promised. On November 9, 1962 the final ships leave Cuba carrying Soviet missiles.

The United States Perspective

Though the chronology remains the same in the Cuban Missile Crisis, there are several differences in the stories. In Robert F. Kennedy's account in his book Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. writes a new forward in the book. In the forward he describes a meeting in Havana in January 1962 on the Cuban Missile Crisis. The intent of the meeting was to enrich historical record by bringing in people who were at recent mortal odds together with scholars. In the meeting, Schlesinger her General Anatoly Gribkov, who had been in Cuba during the crisis describe military deployment. The CIA had estimated 10,000 Soviet troops were on the island. Gribkov reports that there were closer to 35,000. In addition, in reading the Cuban point-of-view it sounds as if there were no actual nuclear warheads on the island, since the CIA never was certain that the nuclear warheads had arrived. According to Gribkov, the United States' assumption was correct. Soviet forces were equipped with nuclear warheads, both short- and long-range missiles. Soviet field commanders also had orders to use tactical weapon against an American invasion, in the case of severed communications with Moscow.

It was true, that by 1962 Castro was a certified enemy of the United States. Eisenhower had hired the Mafia to assassinate Castro and that the Kennedy administration had sponsored a campaign conducted by the CIA of harassment and sabotage against Cuba. It is not true that Castro wanted nuclear missiles in Cuba. This was Nikita Khrushchev's idea and in his memoirs he says that the argument between him and Castro was very heated, but in the end Castro agreed with him. Another misconception from the Cuban point-of-view and most Americans was that Castro allowed the nuclear weapons for reasons of self-defense. The idea from American point-of-view bears out -- Castro said later that he agreed, "not in order to ensure our own defense, but primarily to strengthen socialism on the international plane." Front pages and editorials of the day alluded to the serious problems of the spread of Communism. In a Washington Post article, on the second day of the 13-day conflict, staff reporter Chalmer M. Roberts comments that Kennedy's speech the night before madeclear reference to Hitler as he "moved his army's into the Rhineland in 1938 as America stood by in its isolationism and the French and British let Hitler get away with it." Roberts goes on to note that a young Kennedy wrote a book in 1940, Why England Slept. Roberts believes that Kennedy seemed to have learned from history. Once Hitler saw he could get away with it in the Rhineland he demanded more and more. "And soon," Roberts writes in his front-page analysis, "World War II was inescapable."