Host: Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959 having led the revolution which overthrew the dictator Batista. Castro’s close ties with the Soviet Union made the United States very nervous. Following covert attempts to topple Castro, an economic embargo and the failure of the US Bay of Pigs Invasion like Cuban exiles on April 1961.
This mistrust and unease left a terrifying stand off later that year. It became known to the Russians as the Caribbean Crisis. The Cubans as the October crisis and to the US and its allies is the Cuban Missile Crisis. The closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Tensions rose from the United States who deployed 15 Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey.
The Jupiter’s range of 1500 miles and that they were a direct threat to Moscow. The Russian reacted immediately and US reconnaissance sent out in the 14th of October spotted missile launching sites being constructed in Cuba. The incriminating photographs were shown to the new president John F. Kennedy, who had succeeded Eisenhower in January.
The escalating crisis soon became a baptism of fire for 43 presidents. Kennedy called a meeting at the executive committee of the National Security Council.
Kennedy: The whole of this is said to build up a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment and the shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will be found to contain cargos of offensive weapons featuring that.
Host: Assuring a surgical air strike and resisting pressure from the joint chief of staff for an all out invasion Kennedy decided that the best cause of action was a naval blockade of Cuba. Although for reasons of international law the term quarantined was used instead of blockade. Over the next few days, the Russians by diplomat Andrei Glomico continue to deny the presence of any missiles in Cuba. But the U2 reconnaissance planes reported that four Cuban sites were not only built but fully operational.
The Soviet Union president Nikita Krushchev labeled the quarantine an act of aggression and admits no let up in the work on the missile sites, the Cubans prepared themselves for a US invasion. By the 25th of October the crisis was ahead with the US at a defense readiness condition DEFCON2 for the first time in history and the Soviet showing no signs of backing down.
By the 27th of October, Castro was ready to fight and he drafted a letter to Krushchev calling for a preemptive strike in the United States. He also issued a directive that all Cuban anti-aircraft weapons should fire on any US aircraft. Previously that order was only for groups of two or more aircrafts. Krushchev however, remained calm and the next morning he broadcasted a message on radio Moscow offering a new solution to the crisis. Krushchev promised to remove the Cuban missiles if the Americans agree to remove the Jupiter in Turkey despite Turkey’s continued insistence that they want the missiles to stay.
During the next EXCON meeting President Kennedy pushed an agreement to Kruchchev’s proposal, but his advisors were against it. As they thought it will undermined NATO and Turkey. Around mid day on the 27th, a US Lockheed U2 plane was shot down in Cuba adding to the tension. But Kennedy despite earlier promising to launch an attack if that happen held tight.
By the end of the day, the US who drives with a letter to the USSR suggesting that they will remove the weapon system from Cuba in exchange for the US removing the naval quarantine and promising not to invade Cuba. No mention was made of Turkey but there was an unofficial agreement that the weapons in Turkey would be voluntarily dismantled after the standoff was resolved. The Americans didn’t really expect a positive response to their message. But after the intervention of the United Nations at 9:00am on the 28th of October, Krushchev aired another broadcasted in radio Moscow agreeing to dismantle the Cuban Missiles and return them to the Soviet Union.
The crisis was over, although many believed that the result is a compromise. But considering how the place the world got to all out nuclear war, a few bruised egos were a very small price to pay indeed.
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