Cuban missile crisis

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History of Cuba

■Till 1945 US controlled 90% of Cuba’s mineral wealth, 80% of its utilities and 40% of its sugar resources.

■The corrupt leader of Cuba 1945 Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro.

■Americans feared Castro would alter US interest in Cuba, but Cuba was in economic crisis, foreigners owned most of the economy and Poverty spread over the land.

■Castro begins to nationalize the most US-owned business. He outraged US inventors and US government.

■The Soviet Union, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to gain another socialist outpost very near American soil.

■1961 president Eisenhower cut the diplomatic relations with Cuba, and constant US threats against Cuba served to drive Castro closer to USSR

■Bay of Pigs April 17, 1961 :

–initiated under Eisenhower administration

–They trained an army of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro

–The invasion took place in Bay of pigs =>, later on, called the bay of pig invasion

–It was quickly stopped by the Cuban army and the invasion was failed

–Operation Mongoose is authorized by Kennedy to conduct a covert operation to kill Castro and overthrow remove Communist government from power

■This invasion made the ties between Cuba and the USSR stronger.

■On June 1, 1961, Jupiter missile was placed in Turkey 200 miles away from USSR

–USSR feels threatened by the US and wants to put his missile in Cuba

–Gave the US his own medicine = Balance of Power

The Beginning of crisis

■In May 1961, Nikita Khrushchev was persuaded by the idea to place his intermediate-range nuclear missile in Cuba.

–Deploying missile in Cuba meant :

–Negotiating about terms of West Berlin and bringing it to the Soviet orbit

–Preventing another invasion by American and neutralizing the threat

–A reaction in part to the threat of obsolescent Jupiter-missile in Turkey

–Leveling the playing field and establishment of Mutually assured destruction

–Helping Cuba and securing the peace there

■On May 29, 1962, the head of rocket forces travels to Havana with and obtained a meeting with Fidel Castro offering him the missile deal

■Khrushchev convinced Castro that another American invasion was imminent

–‘’ A Contract against Imperialistic aggression protecting both nation’’

■All of the planning and preparation for transporting and deploying the missile were carried out in the utmost secrecy, with only a few knowing the exact nature of the mission. ( the Denial and Deception were known as ‘’Maskirovka’’)

■Specialists in missile construction under the guise of "machine operators," "irrigation specialists," and "agricultural specialists" arrived in July

■On September 15, 1962, the first ship, Poltava, along with 84 more freighters and with it 42,000 troops were brought to the island Cuba

■From early August the US was suspecting the Soviets of building missile facilities on the island

■On October 14 a U-2 aircraft spying over western Cuba took pictures of the Soviets for the first time

–The U-2 photographs, reviewed by NPIC and were identified as a medium-range ballistic missile

–Kennedy convened a meeting of 9 members of National Security Council and 5 other key advisor

–This meeting later called as EXCOMM

consideration

■Do nothing: American vulnerability to Soviet missiles was not new.

■Diplomacy: Use diplomatic pressure to get the Soviet Union to remove the missiles.

■Secret approach: Offer Castro the choice of splitting with the Russians or being invaded.

■Invasion: Full force invasion of Cuba and overthrow of Castro.

■Air strike: Use the US Air Force to attack all known missile sites.

■Blockade: Use the US Navy to block any missiles from arriving in Cuba.

■A full-scale invasion was not the administration's first option.

■The term "blockade" was problematic. According to international law, a blockade is an act of war, but the Kennedy administration did not think that the Soviets would be provoked to attack by a mere blockade

■ A Quarantine meant a blockade of an offensive weapon

■After Kennedy's speech, Khrushchev is now aware the Americans have found out about the missile

■He calls a Presidium, the highest Committee of the communists. He purposes that publicly announcing a defense pact with Cuba over media or to transfer the control of the missile to Cuba and let them control and defend their country.

■October 24 the Soviets TASS broadcast a telegram to Kennedy form Khrushchev in which Khrushchev warned US’s ‘’ outright piracy’’ would lead to war and the Soviet Union views the blockade as ‘’an act of aggression’’ and their ships will be instructed to ignore it.

■On October 25 the US calls and an emergency meeting of the United Nation. The US ambassador of the UN Adlai Stevenson confronts soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin, challenging him to admit the existence of the missile but he denies.

■The US raises the readiness to Defcon2 meaning B-52 bombers, One-eighth of SAC's 1,436 bombers, 145 intercontinental ballistic missiles all to be ready on alert and Twenty-three nuclear-armed B-52s were sent to orbit points within strike distance of the Soviet Union so it would believe that the US was serious.

■On 26 October the state department started receiving a message that appeared to be written personally by Khrushchev.

■Khrushchev proposing if US promise to never invade Cuba the missile will be removed

■Castro was convinced an invasion is to happen and ordered all anti-aircraft weapons in Cuba to fire on any US aircraft

■On October 27 Radio Moscow broadcasted a message from Khrushchev proposing a new trade: The missile in Cuba would be removed in exchange for the removal of Jupiter missile in Italy.

■The EXCOMM was generally against such a trade because it would undermine NATO ’s authority and the Turkish government had repeatedly stated it was against any such trade.

■Kennedy ordered that a message should immediately be sent to U Thant asking the Soviets to suspend work on the missile while negotiations were carried but during this meeting, the news was brought that a U-2 has been shot down.

■Later that day what white house calls the Black Saturday the US navy drops a series of ‘’signaling depth charges on the Soviet submarine at the blockade line. Unaware that it was armed with a nuclear-tipped torpedo with orders that allowed it to be used if the submarine was damaged by depth charges or surface fire

■s the submarine was too deep to monitor any radio traffic captain of the B-59, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. The decision to launch this required agreement from all three officers on board, but one of them, Vasili Arkhipov, objected and so the nuclear launch was narrowly averted.

■On October 27 Kennedy secretly agreed on removing of the missile on turkey in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missile in Cuba.

■On October 28 Khrushchev publicly announced that The USSR will withdraw its missile from Cuba.

■On June 10, 1963, JFK held a speech to graduating class of American University and called for great cooperation with the Soviets.

■Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union had reached out to Washington to negotiate a nuclear test ban.

■On June 20, 1963, Hotline set up between US and USSR