Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis began on October 14, 1962 and lasted for 38 days until November 20, 1962. It is regarded as the moment when the Cold War was closest to becoming nuclear war, and which could have turned into World War III. The Russians refer to the Cuban Missile Crisis as the "Caribbean Crisis" and the Cubans refer to it as the "October Crisis".

Prelude

U.S. missile sites in Turkey

The U.S. had begun to deploy 15 Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missiles) nuclear missiles near Izmir, Turkey, which directly threatened cities in the western sections of the Soviet Union. These missiles were regarded by President Kennedy as being of questionable strategic value, as a nuclear submarine was capable of providing the same cover with both stealth and superior firepower. On taking office in 1961, Kennedy ordered that the Jupiter missiles be removed. In the late 1950's missile technology was well developed in the field of medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs), as opposed to ICBMs which could not be kept in a state all the time.

Related Topics:
Jupiter IRBM - Izmir - Turkey - President Kennedy - Nuclear submarine - MRBM - ICBM

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MRBMs represented only a small portion of the total American nuclear arsenal, which in turn was much larger than the U.S.S.R.'s. Soviet strategists realized that some nuclear equality could be efficiently reached by placing missiles in Cuba. Soviet MRBMs on Cuban soil, with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 statute miles), could threaten Washington, DC and around half of the U.S. SAC bases (of nuclear-armed bombers), with a flight time of under twenty minutes. In addition, the U.S.'s radar warning system was oriented towards the USSR and would provide little warning of a launch from Cuba.

Related Topics:
Washington, DC - SAC

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Nikita Khrushchev had devised the above deployment plan in May of 1962, and by late July over sixty Soviet ships were en-route to Cuba, some of them carrying military material. John McCone, director of the CIA, warned President Kennedy that some of the ships were probably carrying missiles but a meeting of John and Robert Kennedy, Dean Rusk, and Robert McNamara decided that the Soviets would not try such a thing. Kennedy's administration had received repeated claims from Soviet diplomats that there were no missiles in Cuba, nor any plans to place any, and that the Soviets were not interested in starting an international drama that might impact the US elections in November.

Related Topics:
Nikita Khrushchev - 1962 - John McCone - President Kennedy - Robert Kennedy - Dean Rusk - Robert McNamara

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Soviet strategy

The Soviet government determined in 1959 that any future war would be largely nuclear and would likely be a world-wide war. In that same year the Strategic Rocket Forces were founded. Under Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet government focused increasingly on rockets and missiles instead of conventional military forces, in response to the new administration of Kennedy and his accompanying rearmament program. The Soviets decided to install nuclear weapons, in the form of medium and short range ballistic missiles, in Cuba, a Caribbean nation off the coast of Florida with a socialist government under Fidel Castro. Castro had sought Soviet support after the collapse of its relations with the U.S. due to the Cuban Revolution and the subsequent failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Soviet reasoning was two-fold — first, to defend this new socialist state from a U.S. or U.S.-sponsored invasion, and second, to restore the nuclear balance of power putting US cities directly within the range of Soviet missiles.

Related Topics:
1959 - Strategic Rocket Forces - Nikita Khrushchev - Kennedy - Ballistic missiles - Cuba - Florida - Socialist - Fidel Castro - Cuban Revolution - Bay of Pigs invasion

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