The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War
October, 1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the moment during the Cold War when the two superpowers
The United States and the Soviet Union came close to Nuclear War
Secret communications and miscommunications which played out between the white house and the Kremlin made the crisis a unique event
After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 by the Kennedy Administration
Soviet Premier
Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Cuban Premier Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any further US
aggression
For some time the Soviets had been sending surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles to Cuba, but president John F Kennedy did not protest
However he warned that if offensive weapons were sent to Cuba that the greatest issues would arise
On October 14th, 1962, US U-2 spy planes took several photos showing sites from medium-range and
Intermediate-Range ballistic
Nuclear Missiles under construction in Cuba
Nikita Khrushchev, who had promised not to send offensive weapons to Cuba had been lying
to help him deal with the crisis Kennedyd assemble the team called The Executive Committee of the National Security Council or XCOM for short
At first they favored bombing Cuba with debate over the scale of the attack
The President decided upon a middle course and on October 22nd ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba
The term quarantine being used instead of blockade as blockade assumed the state of war existed
Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev stating that the United States would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba
Demanding that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases and return all offensive weapons to the USSR
He also went on national television to inform the public of the crisis in which he said;
It shall be the policy of the nation
to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet
Union on the United States
requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union
On October 24th, Khrushchev responded to Kennedy describing the U.S
blockade as an act of aggression, and the Soviet ships sent to Cuba would be ordered to keep going
Some Soviet ships turned back and others proceeded. They were stopped by the U.S Naval Forces
But were discovered to contain no offensive weapons
Nevertheless US reconnaissance flights over Cuba indicated the Soviet missile sites were nearing operational readiness
With no clear solution to the crisis the US Forces were put at DEFCON 2
On 26th through 27th of October,
Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message stating that the
USSR would remove missiles from Cuba in return for a promise from the United States not to invade the island
Resolution to the crisis was now looking hopeful but later a second letter was sent by Khrushchev which provoked debate again
It demanded that the deal would also require the removal of U.S Jupiter Missiles from Turkey
That same day a U.S U2 reconnaissance jet was shot down over Cuba
Kennedy prepared for an attack on Cuba within days as they search for any remaining
diplomatic resolution
That night,
Kennedy ignored Khrushchevs second message and proposed to the Soviet Union steps for the removal of Soviet Missiles from Cuba under supervision of the United Nations
and a guarantee that the United States would not attack Cuba
Attorney General Robert Kennedy was sent to meet secretly with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and
Indicated that the United States were planning to remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey anyway and within six months
This was to be kept top secret
the next morning on October 28th
Khrushchev issued a public statement that soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba
The crisis was over
The world escaped nuclear war in October 1962 largely because of the cautious natures of Kennedy and Khrushchev
In 1963 a telephone hotline was set up to give instant contact between the two leaders and a nuclear test ban treaty was signed in
1968 the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed meaning the superpowers promise not to supply Nuclear technology to other countries
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