Cuban Missile Crisis

What was the origin of the crisis?Why was it a “crisis”?How was it resolved?What were the consequences of the CMC?Lessons?

• USA had long established relations with Cuba and considered it inside its sphere of influence– US companies dominated in finance, rails,

electricity, and sugar– Platt Agreement 1902 – Naval Base at

Guantanamo Bay and gave US right to “intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence”

Building to Crisis

• 1959– Pro-USA Cuban government of General Batista is

overthrown by Fidel Castro– US recognized Castro initially

• Castro stated he was not a communist• Tied economic aid to following rules set out by IMF

– Request for loan from Organization of American States is denied

– Agrarian Reform Law• Took away land from private owners and banned foreign

ownership

• 1960– Cuba begins to take economic and military aid from

USSR – Castro seizes oil refineries– Eisenhower reduces amount of sugar bought from

Cuba.– Castro seizes US industrial properties and

nationalizes banks– Embargo on Cuba

• 1961– Eisenhower breaks off diplomatic relations– Castro announces his regime is socialist

• 1961: April – US airstrike on Cuban airfields– Bay of Pigs

• A failed invasion by CIA trained Cuban revolutionaries

• 1961: November – Operation Mongoose

• Sabotage, assiniation plots, diplomatic isolation

• 1962 : Cuba expelled from Organization of American States (OAS)

• USSR feels encircled– Pakistan was member of

USA alliance SEATO– Iran 1956 – Turkey was a member of

NATO• Missiles and bomber bases

USSR Position: 1962

• The Berlin Wall– Tens of thousands of

refugees fled from East to West every year.

– 1961: Wall is constructed to keep people in

USSR Position: 1962

• USSR behind US in strategic missiles– This could tempt a first strike

• U2 plane threatened better intelligence– Plane could read a newspaper headline from 12

miles up• 1962 US announcement of bomb shelter

construction• Desire to stop invasion of Cuba

Decision to Place Weapons

Crisis 1962• July

– Castro makes statements that seem to indicate that USSR is working to defend Cuba

• August– CIA Director tells Kennedy

that he believes USSR will deploy Medium range ballistic missiles (MRBM) to Cuba

• Sept 11th – Soviet Foreign

Minister Gromyko warns US:

Attack Cuba

= War with USSR• October 9

– Kennedy orders U-2 flights over Cuba

• October 10– Senator makes public

charge that ballistic missile bases are being built in Cuba

• October 14 – U-2 flies over western

Cuba and photographs missile sites

• October 15th

– Intelligence team identifies Soviet missile components at San Cristobal

– McNamara is shown the photographic evidence of the MRBMs at San Cristobal.

• October 16th

– Kennedy is told. He calls a group together that will become known as the

EX-COMM– Options considered

1. Air strike

2. Invasion of Cuba

3. Negotiation

4. Blockade + ultimatum to remove missiles

What to do…

• October 17th – Joint Chiefs of staff

make a strong argument for military action

– Second U-2 flight discovers Intermediate range missiles (IRBM)

• October 18th – Soviet Foreign Minister

Gromyko meets with Kennedy• Missiles only for

“defensive capabilities of Cuba”

• October 20th– President meets with team and

decides on a “defensive quarantine”

• October 21st

– General Taylor informs Kennedy that airstrikes would most likely not destroy all of Soviet missiles that were in Cuba

– U-2 flight reveals that bombers and fighters being assembled in Northern Cuba along with cruise missile sites.

• October 22nd

– Congressional leaders are briefed by President

– Kennedy announces to public presence of missiles and blockade

– US military goes to DEFCON 3

– Two USSR ships on route to Cuba at that moment

• October 23– Fighter jets begin reconnaissance

mission– OAS approves quarantine– Bobby Kennedy has lat night

secret meeting with Soviet Ambassador Dobryin

– First telegram from Khrushchev arrives

October 23 Telegram Khrushchev - Kennedy

I should say frankly that measures outlined in your statement represent a serious threat to peace and security of peoples. United States has openly taken path of gross violation of Charter of United Nations, path of violation of international norms of freedom of navigation on high seas, path of aggressive actions both against Cuba and against Soviet Union.

It is self-understood that we also cannot recognize right of United States to establish control over armaments essential to Republic of Cuba for strengthening of its defensive capacity.

We confirm that armaments now on Cuba, regardless of classification to which they belong, are destined exclusively for defensive purposes, in order to secure Cuban Republic from attack of aggressor.

• October 24– All but one of the Soviet ships

approaching Cuba slow or turn around.

– Soviet ships slow and then change course

“We’re eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked.” – SoState Rusk

– UN Secretary General calls for US to drop blockade and start negotiations – ignored

• October 25– Kenney sends telegram to

Khrushchev– EX-COMM discuss deal that

would involve withdrawal of missiles from Turkey in exchange for withdrawal of Soviet Missiles

– US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson confronts Soviet Ambassador Zorin in emergency meeting of the Security Council demanding that he admit to existence of missiles. Zorin refused to answer.

VIDEO 4:01

• October 26th– USA goes to DEFCON -2– USA assembles invasion

force in Florida– Cuba mobilizes– USSR does not mobilize– Kennedy states he his

convinced only an invasion of Cuba will remove missiles; however he decides to give more time.

• Oct. 26– U2 planes fly over Cuba every 5

hours– Soviet Ambassador and Bobby

Kennedy meet again– **Telegram from Khrushchev arrives:

This one is deemed written by Khrushchev himself.

And that must be clear to us, people invested with authority, trust, and responsibility. We must not succumb to intoxication and petty passions, regardless of whether elections are impending in this or that country, or not impending. These are all transient things, but if indeed war should break out, then it would not be in our power to stop it, for such is the logic of war. I have participated in two wars and know that war ends when it has rolled through cities and villages, everywhere sowing death and destruction.

If you did this as the first step towards the unleashing of war, well then, it is evident that nothing else is left to us but to accept this challenge of yours. If, however, you have not lost your self-control and sensibly conceive what this might lead to, then, Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.

• Oct. 27– U2 is shot down– U2 flying over Soviet airspace is

shot but returns safely– Soviet embassy in Washington

begins to burn papers– 2nd telegram from Khrushchev

arrives• US must remove missiles from

Turkey

– EX-COMM went home with idea that decision to act would be taken the next day

• Bobby Kennedy recommended, and this was accepted, to reply to the first and not the second telegram, picking the parts that were acceptable and ignoring those that were not.– Demand for reply by Oct 28– Invasion of Cuba planned for Monday Oct 29

• Oct 28– Radio Moscow broadcasts Khrushchev's

decision that work on missile sites would stop and those missile in Cuba would be removed

– US would, in return• Publicly: declare that it would never invade Cuba• Secretly: withdraw missiles from Turkey

“We looked into the mouth of the cannon. The Russians flinched.”

- Secretary of State Rusk

Reports after the crisis were that the USSR had 100 tactical nuclear missiles in Cuba plus 40,000 troops

• Cuban missile crisis led to détente– A direct hotline between Kremlin and White

House was established– Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963

• USSR determined never to be put into such a position again and began a large scale development of its armed forces, focusing on nuclear missiles.

• Khrushchev's fall from power in 1964 directly tied to his perceived “loss’ of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Consequences