Cuban Missile Crisis

Prelude To the Crisis

The Soviet Union installed missiles in Cuba to buttress Soviet political clout in world affairs at a time when the balance of power seemed to tip in favor of the United States. A growing “missile gap” between the two superpower competitors had existed as the United States surpassed the U.S.S.R. in the development and production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs): The farthest that Soviet missiles could reach was Europe, but U.S. missiles could reach Soviet territory. Thus, the Soviet Union redressed the imbalance by deciding to deploy medium-range missiles in proximity to U.S. territory. The United States had already based missiles in Turkey against the Soviet Union following this logic, and thus the counterdeployment of missiles seemed justifiable to the Soviet Union. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev thought that although this counterdeployment would initially cause much commotion, Kennedy, whom Khrushchev viewed as being young and inexperienced as the result of Kennedy's earlier failure in the 1961 Bay of Pigs incident, would eventually get used to the idea of having missiles situated near U.S. territory. The strategic balance would shift, benefiting the Soviets.

Khrushchev developed the idea of deploying missiles in Cuba in May 1962. Subsequently, the Soviet Union began clandestinely shipping missiles to Cuba and installing them. In July 1962 the first Soviet ship, loaded with nuclear missiles and troops, set sail for Cuba. An agreement on military and industrial assistance was signed on 2 September 1962, between Khrushchev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who wanted the missiles to strengthen Cuba's posture of defense against the United States. Ever since the Bay of Pigs incident, in which the United States had tried to invade Cuba, Castro had been wary of a second invasion and had been looking for a way to defend Cuba from U.S. forces.

The Soviet Union and Cuba had planned to keep the agreement secret until the nuclear missiles were installed. However, on 4 September 1962, the U.S. government began to receive intelligence information indicating that the Soviet Union was shipping missiles to Cuba and constructing missile sites. President Kennedy sent two public communications to Moscow on 4 and 13 September 1962, warning against any offensive weapons the Soviet Union might introduce. Yet, prior to the discovery of the missiles, Kennedy had rebuffed all claims that the Soviets were bringing missiles into Cuba and had reassured the U.S. public that such missiles did not exist. Moscow, in response to Kennedy, stated that the missiles being shipped to Cuba were defensive in nature and were no threat to the United States.

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