JFK Lancer

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded. Luckily, thanks to the bravery of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, war was averted. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union.

According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. He also presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another United States-sponsored invasion, such as the failed attempt at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

Secretly build missile installations in Cuba were initiated after obtaining Fidel Castro's approval. Fidel Castro was looking for a way to defend his island nation from an attack by the U.S. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Castro felt a second attack was inevitable. Consequently, he approved of Khrushchev's plan to place missiles on the island. In the summer of 1962 the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build its missile installations in Cuba.

Reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations Missile Map under construction in Cuba were shown to President John Kennedy on October 16, 1962. After seven days of guarded and intense debate in the United States administration, during which Soviet diplomats denied that installations for offensive missiles were being built in Cuba, President Kennedy, in a televised address on October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded to accordingly. He also imposed a naval quarantine on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of offensive military weapons from arriving there.

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Khrushchev/Kennedy photo Khrushchev sent letters to Kennedy on October 23 and 24 indicating the deterrent nature of the missiles in Cuba and the peaceful intentions of the Soviet Union. During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and other communications, both formal and "back channel." On October 26, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a long rambling letter seemingly proposing that the missile installations would be dismantled and personnel removed in exchange for United States assurances that it or its proxies would not invade Cuba. On October 27, another letter to Kennedy arrived from Khrushchev, suggesting that missile installations in Cuba would be dismantled if the United States dismantled its missile installations in Turkey.

The American administration decided to ignore this second letter and to accept the offer outlined in the letter of October 26. Khrushchev then announced on October 28 that he would dismantle the installations and return them to the Soviet Union, expressing his trust that the United States would not invade Cuba. Further negotiations were held to implement the October 28 agreement, including a United States demand that Soviet light bombers also be removed from Cuba, and to specify the exact form and conditions of United States assurances not to invade Cuba. (Library of Congress)

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KENNEDY AND CASTRO: THE SECRET QUEST FOR ACCOMMODATION Edited by Peter Kornbluh
JFK Revisited ,A noted historian and Kennedy Administration insider refutes the revisionist version of JFK's legacy, By Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF DOCUMENTS ON US-CUBAN WAR PLANS AND COVERT OPS, Documents on CDRom D118 2310 pages. The National Archives released pages of previously classified files from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These documents (formally called Records Group 218 and records Group 335) have also been called the Califano Collection, and include materials originally classified "Top Secret/Sensitive" and in sections labeled "JCS Central Files," Lemnitzer Papers," "Taylor Papers;""Wheeler Papers;" and "Califano Papers." The documents deal with contingency plans to topple the Castro regime (and to invade Cuba) in the period 1961 - 64. Included are documents pre-Bay of Pigs (i.e., the JCS approval of the original invasion plan), then post Bay of Pigs material as to what went wrong; then plans to oust Castro in 1962; and finally plans to oust him in 1963 and 1964, under the guise of a U.S.-inspired coup. The news stories released in mid November -which focused primarily on some rather hare-brained "James Bond" type schemes really do not capture the full extent of what is in this collection. (Description and index by David Lifton)
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
1961-1963 Volume X Cuba, 1961-1962
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
1961-1963 Volume XI Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath
Includes BOP, Mongoose, Artime, Attwood, etc.
The Avalon Project : The Cuban Missile Crisis
13 Days In October Cuban Missile Crisis
C-SPAN Online Cuban Missile Crisis Feature (audio)
Learn about President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Letter from Krushchev to JFK, October 24, 1962, during the Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis ThinkQuest Team 11046.
More on Bobby and the Cuban Missile Crisis, by James G. Hershberg
Russian Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis
"Dismayed by the Actions of the Soviet Union": Mikoyan's talks with Fidel Castro and the Cuban leadership, November 1962 by Vladislav M. Zubok
Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy: Cuban Missile Crisis
The Mikoyan-Castro Talks, 4-5 November 1962: The Cuban Version
The "Lessons" of the Cuban Missile Crisis for Warsaw Pact Nuclear Operations, by Mark Kramer
The Havana Conference On the Cuban Missile Crisis:
Tactical Weapons Disclosure Stuns Gathering by Raymond L. Garthoff
Tactical Nuclear Weapons, Soviet Command Authority, and the Cuban Missile Crisis by Mark Kramer
More New Evidence on the Cuban Missile Crisis:
More Documents from the Russian Archives, by James G. Hershberg
Anatomy of a Controversy:
Anatoly F. Dobrynin's Meeting With Robert F. Kennedy, Saturday, 27 October 1962 by Jim Hershberg
Using KGB Documents:
The Scali-Feklisov Channel in the Cuban Missile Crisis by Alexander Fursenko and Timothy Naftali
Collective Memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis JFK Lancer Needs Your Help If you find this site useful, important, or entertaining, please consider a donation of any amount.
Khrushchev letter to President Kennedy
Translation of letter
13 Days Movie
Books from Amazon on JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis

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