October 27, 1962.
Two world superpowers, equipped with over 4,000 nuclear warheads in total, are flirting
with a dangerous escalation of what had so far been a Cold War, one fought without direct
confrontation.
Both the US and USSR have placed missiles in third countries close to each others’
borders, pointed directly at enemy soil.
In this critical moment, two events happen on the same day.
An American U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down over Cuba, where the Soviet missile bases
have been built up, and Kennedy is urged to retaliate militarily directly against the
Soviets.
Meanwhile, American warships drop depth charges to force a Soviet B-59 submarine to surface.
The submarine’s officers are unaware they are violating a US naval blockade, and interpret
the maneuvers of the US warships as an act of war.
What the Americans don’t know is that the Soviet submarine being threatened is carrying
a nuclear-tipped torpedo…
Had two men made different decisions, that could easily have been the day the world exploded
into nuclear war.
Why didn’t it?
To understand the actions taken in the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it’s crucial
to take a quick look back a couple of years at US, Cuban, and Soviet relations.
Since the Monroe Doctrine, the US had increasingly asserted its power and influence over the
Western Hemisphere.
With the Soviet bloc a declared ideological enemy, the US was especially vigilant about
communism penetrating the West.
This sphere of influence would be tested in 1959, when young revolutionary Fidel Castro
took power in Cuba after waging a guerilla war against US-backed military dictator Fulgencio
Batista.
He quickly converted the nation to communism, further angering US politicians who were engaged
in a political conflict and arms race with the most powerful communist nation of all
at the time.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the US President at the time, deemed Castro’s administration
in Cuba unacceptable.
Initially, his idea was simple: the CIA would train 1,400 Cuban exiles in the US, sympathetic
to the old government and angry at Castro, to invade Cuba and win the country back.
The plan was hatched under Eisenhower in 1960.
By the time it was ready, the charismatic John F. Kennedy was President of the US.
Kennedy had second - and third and fourth - thoughts about the planned invasion.
The strategy of sending in Cuban exiles had come about to 1) make it seem it wasn’t
a US government invasion of Cuba and 2) to keep the invading group small and clandestine,
so they could infiltrate the island nation and win the support of even more anti-Castro
Cubans.
Kennedy worried that the group was too small to be militarily effective, and too large
to keep secret.
However, on April 17, 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion was launched.
The result was embarrassing.
The US government had severely underestimated Castro’s forces and severely overestimated
Cuban nostalgia for a US puppet government on the island.
Within 24 hours, the US-trained Cuban exiles had been defeated, and Kennedy’s administration
was humiliated.
Nevertheless, the effort to dismantle Castro’s regime continued with foiled assassination
attempts throughout the year.
Even though many top US officials advised Kennedy that Cuba wasn’t much of a threat
to the US at all, Kennedy had told voters he would be tough on communism, and in politics,
appearances matter most.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev wanted to assist the newly formed Communist government
in Cuba against US interference, while also looking for a possible bargaining chip to
gain influence in West Berlin.
As he said, “we had to establish a tangible and effective deterrent to American interference
in the Caribbean.
But what exactly?
The logical answer was missiles”.
In addition, USSR and US nuclear capabilities were vastly different at this time, and Khruschev
sought to bridge the gap.
Physicist Pavel Podvig pointed out that Soviet bombers “could deliver about 270 nuclear
weapons to US territory”, while the US had thousands of warheads and almost 2,000 missile
delivery systems; 1,576 Strategic Air Command bombers, 183 Atlas and Titan ICBMs, 144 Polaris
missiles on nuclear submarines, and ten Minuteman ICBMs.
The Soviets, in contrast, had good medium-range ballistic missiles and intermediate-range
ballistic missiles, though relatively unreliable ICBMs, aka intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Placing weapons in Cuba, only 90 miles from Florida, would give the USSR a more reliable
attack system against the US.
After all, the US had already placed Jupiter missiles in Turkey pointed at the USSR, so
Khrushchev figured missiles in Cuba would be an effective response.
From July to October of 1962, the Soviets started secretly transporting troops and equipment
to Cuba.
Though the operation was hardly a secret from Cuban civilians - 41,902 soldiers were deployed
unconvincingly disguised as “agricultural specialists”, while at one point Marshal
Sergey Biryuzov suggested disguising the missiles as palm trees - the CIA wouldn’t discover
the nuclear plot until October, as it had withdrawn most of its presence after the Bay
of Pigs.
Though the US had noticed a Soviet military buildup in Cuba, it was on October 14, 1962
that U-2 spy plane pilot Major Richard Heyser photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic
missile being assembled.
This started the clock on one of the most tense, harrowing periods in US history.
The next day, Kennedy sees the photos and calls his closest advisors to a meeting in
order to discuss US options.
He forms a group called the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or EXCOMM
for short, consisting of five close advisors and nine members of the National Security
Council.
Suggestions thrown out in the meeting are all over the map, ranging from a stern warning
to the Soviet Union and Cuba, to an air strike and outright invasion of the island.
Kennedy, ignoring his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff, reflecting on humiliating previous
interventions in Cuba and rightly considering that a direct attack and invasion may lead
to disaster, chooses another path.
He decides the US will conduct a naval blockade of the island, although he calls it a “quarantine”
instead.
Why a quarantine?
Because a blockade is technically an act of war, and this one word difference would actually
further escalate the situation.
JFK dictates a letter to Khrushchev announcing that the US will not permit Soviet shipments
of weapons to Cuba.
The President further demands that the Soviet Union dismantle the current Cuban missile
bases and return all weapons to Moscow.
That night, Kennedy makes a serious public announcement regarding the crisis to the US
public.
On national television, he says, “it shall be the policy of this 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”.
The same day, the Joint Chiefs of Staff upgrades the US’ military readiness status to DEFCON
3; not full readiness yet, but increased vigilance with the Air Force ready to mobilize within
15 minutes.
While Kennedy is taking this bold, powerful stance in front of the American people, another
discussion entirely is taking place behind closed doors in EXCOMM meetings.
Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen, articulating the views of the EXCOMM board, writes the
following memo regarding the Soviet missiles in Cuba: “It is generally agreed that these
missiles, even when fully operational, do not significantly alter the balance of power—i.e.,
they do not significantly increase the potential megatonnage capable of being unleashed on
American soil, even after a surprise American nuclear strike.”
The Soviets already had missiles capable of attacking the US from longer distances.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara points out the obvious in EXCOMM meetings: “A missile
is a missile.
It makes no great difference whether you are killed by a missile from the Soviet Union
or Cuba.”
The fact that the longer-range missiles were somewhat more unreliable didn’t mean much
in the long run.
The US is a pretty big target to hit.
However, the Kennedy administration knows that optics are important, and after the humiliating
events of the last two years in Cuba, the US cannot afford to look weak in the face
of an aggressive Soviet act.
Meanwhile, halfway across the world, Khrushchev receives Kennedy’s letter and sees his television
appearance announcing the quarantine.
On October 24, Khrushchev comes back with a response of his own.
The Soviet leader calls a spade a spade, or rather, a blockade a blockade, and dubs it
an “act of aggression” on the part of the US.
However, even while Khrushchev publicly condemns the US’s actions, he is unwilling to have
weapon-carrying ships breach the US quarantine line.
Soviet ships are turned back by the US, except for a few carrying no weapons.
The tensions between the two Cold War superpowers are being felt all around the world.
China starts publicly announcing its support of Cuba, while the citizens of West Berlin
fear their freedom will end up trampled in any Soviet-US conflict.
Though Khrushchev is unwilling to breach the quarantine line, more US spy planes inform
Kennedy that the Soviets’ missile site on Cuba is still being worked on and almost ready.
Seeing that his calls to dismantle the site have gone unheeded, Kennedy and his administration
upgrade the readiness status of Strategic Air Command to DEFCON 2.
DEFCON 1, the highest level of military readiness- including its nuclear forces-, has in fact
never been called for in US history.
So the upgrade to DEFCON 2, meaning war is imminent, underscores the grave nature of
the crisis.
On October 26, Kennedy starts seriously considering the option of a US invasion in Cuba and a
direct strike on the missile site.
Predicting that this will cause global mayhem, he wants to give his diplomatic option more
time to work, while facing extreme pressure from both Congress and EXCOMM to take military
action.
That same evening, around 2 AM Moscow time, Khrushchev sends a long, emotional message
to Kennedy, in which he details his fears of the current situation resulting in nuclear
apocalypse.
In a private, heartfelt letter to the US President, the Soviet leader writes, “If there is no
intention to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only
relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot.
We are ready for this.”
Khrushchev promises to remove the missiles in exchange for a simple US assurance that
they will not invade Cuba.
However, the next day on October 27, Khrushchev, apparently over whatever dark night of the
soul caused him to reach out to Kennedy the night before, goes back on his conciliatory
stance.
In a much more harshly worded, and unfortunately, public letter, he indicates any deal must
include the removal of US Jupiter missiles from Turkey in order to be accepted by the
USSR.
Furthermore, another military action forces the US closer than ever to war with the USSR.
Soviets tracking an American U-2 spy plane conducting a reconnaissance mission over Cuba
become increasingly concerned the US will learn too much as the pilot spends well over
an hour near secret locations of Soviet nuclear weapons.
Even though only the commanding general is supposed to authorize a surface to air missile
launch, he is nowhere to be found.
Lieutenant General Stepan Grechko gives the order to shoot the plane down instead.
Two missiles are fired; one of them manages to find its target, bringing down the plane
and killing US pilot Rudolf Anderson.
A hush falls over Kennedy’s meeting with his team as the killing of Anderson reaches
their ears.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze remarks, “They’ve fired the first shot”.
To everyone in the room, war now seems inevitable.
In Moscow, Khrushchev hears of the attack and starts to realize the situation is quickly
careening out of control.
As he would state later in life, the Soviet premier had mostly wanted to make the US “learn
just what it feels like to have enemy missiles pointing at you; we’d be doing nothing more
than giving them a little of their own medicine”.
It was never his intention to come so close to nuclear war, a possibility which now seems
increasingly likely, and is about to become an even closer call.
At the same time the two leaders are deciding their next move, there is a problem at the
quarantine line.
The US Navy is dropping a series of signaling depth charges close to a Soviet B-59 submarine
to force it to surface.
Unbeknownst to them, the submarine is equipped with a nuclear-tipped torpedo, one that it
has orders to use if the submarine is fired on.
Unfortunately, the submarine has been too deep in the ocean for too long to know the
current status of the crisis.
Captain Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky assumes the charges being dropped on the B-59 are
an attack, and that the US and USSR are already at war.
He makes the decision to launch the torpedo.
However, all three officers on board need to sign off on the decision to launch a nuclear
weapon from the submarine.
One man, Vasili Arkhipov, holds out, believing the situation might be a misunderstanding;
the torpedo remains unlaunched, and a nuclear strike is, once again, very narrowly averted.
Back in D.C., with news of the U-2 plane being shot down all over the White House, Kennedy’s
advisers are clamoring for revenge.
They urge Kennedy to launch a retaliatory attack the next morning.
Kennedy, however, correctly suspects that Khrushchev did not authorize this air strike
against a US plane.
He is still hesitant to take military action.
As he explains to the advisers directing him towards war, “it isn’t the first step
that concerns me, but both sides escalating to the fourth or fifth step and we don’t
go to the sixth because there is no one around to do so”.
At this point, the US administration makes a risky move.
Kennedy decides to ignore Khrushchev's second, angrier letter, as promising to withdraw missiles
from Turkey would show US weakness and risk NATO alliances.
The President decides to respond only to the first letter instead.
Ignoring the existence of an official enemy demand in a crisis is definitely a bold move,
but one that Kennedy feels will pay off.
JFK also realizes that to preserve US status and alliances, he has little other choice
at this point.
Little do the EXCOMM members know that JFK has also been secretly playing another hand
this whole time.
Perhaps to be expected from such a tight-knit family, JFK keeps his younger brother, Robert
F. Kennedy, just 36 years old at the time, as his most trusted advisor.
As the missile crisis is escalating, RFK is functioning as the President’s de facto
chief of staff.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the EXCOMM members, while the team publicly drafts JFK’s response
to Khrushchev - a promise not to attack Cuba in exchange for the removal of Soviet missiles
- JFK has sent his younger brother on a mission.
Robert F. Kennedy secretly meets with Soviet Ambassador to the US Anatoly Dobrynin.
He informs the ambassador that the US will, in fact, remove their Jupiter missiles from
Turkey, and that they were planning to do so anyway.
However, he emphasizes the fact that for the sake of optics and alliances, this removal
cannot be part of any public deal between the US and the Soviet Union.
Dobrynin conveys the message to Khrushchev, who is already fearful of an imminent war
between the two nuclear superpowers.
Upon hearing the US will accept the Soviets’ demands, even in secret, the Soviet premier
decides to put an end to this crisis once and for all.
At 10 AM on October 28, Radio Moscow interrupts everything to make one of the most important
announcements of the year, reading a letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy: the Soviet Union
will dismantle and remove all missiles from Cuba.
Though Castro is angry with what he perceives as the Soviets backing down in the face of
US intimidation, most of the world breathes a sigh of relief.
Back on American soil, Kennedy hears the message and responds in kind, promising to keep peace
in the Caribbean area, and praising Khrushchev for his “statesmanlike decision”.
After a harrowing 13 days, the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end.
The Soviet Union started dismantling their missiles, and on November 20, after Kennedy
was satisfied that all missiles had been removed, he ended the quarantine of Cuba.
Six months later, in April of 1963, the US removed its Jupiter missiles from Turkey,
though the world wouldn’t know this was part of the US-USSR pact for years.
Since this part of the deal was kept a secret, Kennedy won praise for his resolution of the
crisis while Khrushchev ended up viewed as somewhat weaker, having given in to US demands
in exchange for a simple reassurance of peace.
However, one good effect of the crisis was the installation of a “hotline” between
D.C. and Moscow, to prevent another similar conflict from ever taking place.
It is terrifying to think that were it not for a few moments of hesitation on the parts
of Kennedy and Khrushchev, or the actions of one man on a submarine such as Vasili Arkhipov,
the world could have erupted in nuclear war in October of 1962.
Now that you’ve learned the fascinating history of the week the world almost ended
in nuclear war, go discover another incredible story or check out this other video instead!