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".

The U-2 flights

A U-2 flight in late August photographed a new series of SAM sites being constructed, but on September 4, 1962 Kennedy told Congress that there were no offensive missiles in Cuba. On the night of September 8, the first consignment of SS-4 MRBMs was unloaded in Havana, and a second shipload arrived on September 16. The Soviets were building nine sites — six for SS-4s and three for SS-5s with a range of 4,000 km (2,400 statute miles). The planned arsenal was forty launchers, an increase in Soviet first strike capacity of 70%.

Related Topics:
U-2 - SAM - September 4 - September 8 - SS-4 - Havana - September 16 - SS-5

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A number of unconnected problems meant that the missiles were not discovered by the US until a U-2 flight of October 14 clearly showed the construction of an SS-4 site near San Cristobal. The photographs were shown to Kennedy on October 16 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/colc.html. By October 19 the U-2 flights (then almost continuous) showed four sites were operational. Initially, the U.S. government kept the information secret, telling only the fourteen key officials of the executive committee. The United Kingdom was not informed until the evening of October 21. 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 placed a naval "quarantine" (blockade) on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of military weapons from arriving there. The word quarantine was used rather than blockade for reasons of international law (the blockade took place in international waters) and in keeping with the Quarantine Speech of 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Related Topics:
October 14 - San Cristobal - October 16 - October 19 - United Kingdom - October 21 - October 22 - Cuba - Soviet Union - Quarantine - Blockade - International law - Quarantine Speech - 1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt

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