Cuban Missile Crisis

Tense political showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1962, sparked by the Soviet decision to base ballistic missiles in Cuba. Many historians believe that the Cuban Missile Crisis marked the closest the world has ever come to engaging in a nuclear war.

Background

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the culmination of a series of events that transformed Cuba from a reliable U.S. ally to an implacable foe. The first of these events was the success of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which swept pro-U.S. strongman Fulgencio Batista from power and installed a communist regime led by Fidel Castro. The administration of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, which was ideologically committed to fighting the spread of communism, planned an invasion to topple Castro. The resulting 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, approved and launched by Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy, proved to be an embarrassing failure.

Following the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Castro turned to the Soviet Union for economic aid, as well as military support against any further aggression by the United States. Part of the Soviet military support for Cuba included the secret introduction of intermediate-range ballistic missiles into the island in 1962. This move had two goals: to protect Cuba against U.S. military threats and to offset the recent basing of similar U.S. missiles in Turkey, close to the Soviet border.

The Crisis

The construction of missile bases in Cuba began secretly in the summer of 1962. By mid-September, the Soviets had begun shipping nuclear-tipped missiles to the island. Although U.S. spy planes had photographed construction of the missile sites, intelligence analysts at first believed they were to be used for antiaircraft missiles. However, photos taken on October 14 clearly showed the presence of offensive ballistic missile sites. A week later, President Kennedy publicly revealed this information and announced a naval blockade of Cuba. All ships headed for Cuba would be stopped and searched by the U.S. Navy; any ships that refused to stop would be sunk. Kennedy demanded that the Soviets dismantle the bases and withdraw any missiles in Cuba.

Bay of Pigs Invasion

Corbis.

Both Castro and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev initially refused the U.S. demands and denounced the blockade as illegal. In a series of letters over the next several days, Khrushchev argued that Cuba needed the missiles to protect itself against a possible repeat of U.S. aggression. Kennedy, however, refused to accept the presence of offensive nuclear weapons poised so close to U.S. soil. For several days, with Soviet ships carrying missiles sailing ever closer to the blockade zone, the two nations stared one another down. Many people feared that the confrontation would result in a nuclear war between the superpowers.

On October 26, Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy and offered to withdraw the missiles in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba. However, the following day the Soviets announced a different offer over the radio: They would remove the missiles from Cuba if the United States would withdraw its missiles from Turkey. Kennedy publicly accepted the deal Khrushchev offered in writing but privately accepted the second offer—the handful of U.S. missiles based in Turkey would be removed. The Soviet ships returned home, and on October 28, Khrushchev ordered Soviet missiles removed from Cuba. Three weeks later, satisfied that the missiles were indeed gone, Kennedy ended the naval blockade of the island.

...