-In 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union stand on the verge of direct military
confrontation﻿.
-I think the main lesson of the Cuban missile crisis was that as soon as you start escalating
a conflict, accidents can happen.
-Within 12 hours, all units were assembled and ready to go.
-The politicians, the leaders – all their plans go out the window.
-We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war.
-But in a nuclear war, the margin for error is very, very narrow.
-Vladimir Putin threatens nuclear action.
-And then the question is, can the leaders control events that they have set in motion?
[Music]
-Fine style gets aboard in Miami for a fine trip to Havana, Cuba.
-Cuba in the 1950s had been a playground for rich Americans.
Americans used to go down to Havana to gamble, to enjoy the girls, to enjoy the sunshine.
-Our interest in Latin America has always been high.
Today, it is deeper than ever.
Some 90 miles from American shores, the island of Cuba was a major sugar producer and haven
for the American mafia.
-It was run by a dictator called Fulgencio Batista, who made life very pleasant for visiting
American tourists.
But he ran Cuba like a personal fiefdom.
Tomás Diez Acosta grew up in Cuba during Batista's rule.
-From his stronghold in the wild Sierra Maestra mountains, Cuba’s
Fidel Castro emerged triumphant after two years of guerilla warfare against the Batista regime.
Rising to power in 1959, revolutionary Fidel Castro pushed to rid Cuba of American influence.
-Steps taken by Castro aimed at reducing trade between the United States and Cuba.
-Castro says the Cuban revolutionary government has no reason to offer explanations to America
or to anyone.
When the promise of democratic elections didn’t materialize, along with Castro embracing Soviet
leader Nitika Khrushchev, officials in Washington worried Cuba might become the first communist
regime in the Western Hemisphere – and a new front in the growing Cold War.
-Soon there was a plan set in motion by the United States to deal with, uh, Castro, to
overthrow him.
-This was the campground of the proud and optimistic Cuban brigade trained by the C.I.A.
in perhaps the largest covert operation in the history of subversion.
-I remember being told by our C.I.A.
trainers, you know, some of you might not make it.
In the early morning darkness of April 17, 1961, anti-Castro expats trained by the American
government came ashore along Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.
Eduardo Zayas-Bazán was one of them.
-I joined a group of 12 frogmen.
We had no prior military training whatsoever.
But we were convinced that if the Americans were backing us, we were going to be successful.
Instead, the mission was a half-baked disaster, easily snuffed out by Castro.
-The people have been exhorted by Castro to push back the invaders.
President John F. Kennedy, in office less than three months, had tried to conceal the
United States’ involvement.
-These charges are totally false.
-The Bay of Pigs disaster was a military and diplomatic defeat for the new president.
-The Americans had always been heroes to me.
I could not believe the Americans had not only abandoned us – it was treason.
-The Bay of Pigs had the result of pushing Castro further into the arms of the Russians.
He actually appeals for military support, and when the Russians offer him nuclear weapons
as well, he thinks it's his responsibility to accept that offer.
-On October 14, a recon plane returns with the first hard, photographic evidence indicating
the presence of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba.
In October 1962, aerial photos confirmed what American intelligence suspected.
-And even before the new information can be fully assessed, the president orders the leaders
of America’s armed forces to prepare for any emergency.
About an hour outside the Cuban capital of Havana, the Soviet Union had installed nuclear
missiles within range of the United States.
-Khrushchev told his military that his intention was to put hedgehog in Kennedy’s pants.
The idea was to establish leverage.
-After the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy comes into the Cuban missile crisis feeling that he has
to reassert American credibility and prove himself.
He makes it very clear right from the beginning whatever else happens, Khrushchev has to withdraw
those missiles.
-Although a direct military confrontation with the Soviet Union may be less than 72
hours away, few civilians are aware of the impending crisis.
-Kennedy was extremely concerned that any sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding
could cause the start of the nuclear war.
-Despite that, there were numerous, numerous mistakes, misunderstandings and miscalculations.
Almost immediately, Kennedy was being advised to bomb the missile sites, a decision that
could have dramatically escalated the crisis.
-However, one of the questions he asked the intelligence people was, are those missiles
ready to fire?
The best estimate he got was that we've got another week or two.
So Kennedy had a few days to think about his reaction.
-Good evening, my fellow citizens.
-He decided on an intermediate option.
It was to impose a naval quarantine, or blockade, around Cuba.
-All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port, will, if found to
contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.
But even the announcement of a blockade nearly resulted in catastrophe.
-After the announcement of the blockade, the Soviet ships turned back.
Well, that information arrived in the White House
24 hours later.
And a few minutes before it arrived, Kennedy already gave his consent for the possible
attack on those ships.
-Men and women the world over hang on the news.
No one can be sure that he and his family will still be alive at this time tomorrow.
-Both Kennedy and Khrushchev realized very quickly they were losing control of events.
The most dangerous day of the crisis, an American U-2 plane was going on a routine mission up
to the North Pole and he made a wrong turn and he ended up over the Soviet Union.
That could have been mistaken for an attack.
The next day, Khrushchev wrote and said, you know, what are you doing?
It turned out that Kennedy knew nothing about that, uh, flight.
Before the crisis spiraled any further, Kennedy and Khrushchev came to a compromise.
-Perhaps the most frightening week the world has ever known is over.
The Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba with the assurance the United States
would not invade the island.
And despite public statements to the contrary, the Americans made a secret agreement: They
took their missiles out of Turkey, near the Soviet Union.
-One of the questions that we should ask: If there were so many mistakes, misunderstandings
and screw ups, why we are still here?
Why there was no nuclear war over Cuba?
The simplest answer to that is fear.
And in particular, fear that was shared between Kennedy and Khrushchev of the nuclear war.
The two men went through the Second World War.
They knew what global wars and nuclear bombings could look like.
Sixty years after Cuba, the United States and Russia again found themselves in a risky
military faceoff, this time after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.
-Putin’s invasion has been a test for the ages.
A test for America.
A test for the world.
-This is not a bluff.
Those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons, the prevailing winds can turn in
their direction.
-This war in Ukraine most likely inaugurates Cold War II.
Both Khrushchev and Putin were trying to get on par with the United States.
-Putin is a more unpredictable leader.
Khrushchev had direct personal experience of war in a way that Putin never had, and
therefore he is willing to run a greater degree of risk.
-What would you say to him if he is considering using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons?
-Don’t.
-The peak of the Cuban crisis lasted 13 days.
The situation in Ukraine, we don’t know when it will end.
The longer the crisis continues, the more things are going to happen without anybody
expecting it.
-Humanitarian aid worker from the U.S. was killed in that war-torn country
-Particularly in the nuclear era, everything depends on one or two men.
They have incredible power at their fingertips.
In the end, Kennedy and Khrushchev understood that they were on the same side.
That was what saved the world in 1962.
It’s unclear whether Biden and Putin are on the same side.