OCTOBER CRISIS

Eight weeks after the joint flight of Nikolayev and Popovich, the Cold War took its most dramatic turn. It was a turn which has since been regarded as the moment at which the Soviet Union and the United States came closest to full-scale nuclear conflict. It began on 14 October 1962, when reconnaissance photographs taken by a U-2 aircraft revealed the construction of ballistic missile bases in Cuba. President John Kennedy regarded it as a significant threat to both his own nation and others in the western hemisphere and, moreover, a pro-communist country in Latin America was unthinkable at this tense time. Events had not been helped by the president’s own half-hearted support of a group of Cuban exiles to topple Fidel Castro’s regime in April 1961. This had prompted the revolutionary dictator to declare his fledgling nation a socialist republic, ally himself openly with the Soviet Union and begin efforts to modernise Cuba’s military infrastructure.

Kennedy’s other attempts at aggression included Operation Mongoose, which sought to destabilise and overthrow Castro through a series of (ultimately unsuccessful) covert military activities, together with continuous reconnaissance overflights and harassment from the United States’ Guantanamo naval base. In April 1962, Nikita Khrushchev agreed to supply surface-to-air and surface-to – surface missiles to Cuba for coastal defence and, a few weeks later, began installing Soviet-controlled nuclear weapons on the island. This emplacement was a clear response to Kennedy’s own installation of 15 Jupiter missiles at Izmir in Turkey, all of which were aimed at cities in the western Soviet Union, including Moscow. By late July, more than 60 Russian ships had reached Cuba and fears grew that an American invasion was imminent. A joint Congressional resolution had already authorised the use of force if their interests were threatened and a huge military exercise, Operation Ortsac, was planned in the Caribbean for October.

Although it was widely known that the United States possessed a far larger nuclear arsenal than the Soviet Union, the close proximity of missiles stationed in Cuba would reduce the warning time of any launches to little or none. Meanwhile, between June and October, Soviet merchant ships delivered two dozen launch pads, 42 missiles, 45 nuclear-tipped warheads, 42 fl-28 bombers, a 40-strong MiG regiment, two Anti-Air Defence divisions and three mechanised infantry units to the island. Kennedy had initially expressed scepticism that Khrushchev would risk provoking an international confrontation: even in late August, he told Congress that the Cuban missiles were for defensive, not offensive, purposes. Further reassurances to this effect came from Soviet ambassador Anatoli Dobrynin and from Khrushchev himself.

The military build-up, however, continued. On 8 October, Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado told the United Nations General Assembly that, if his country was attacked, it would protect itself. “We have sufficient means,’’ he warned, “with which to defend ourselves; we have, indeed, our inevitable weapons, which we would have preferred not to acquire and which we do not wish to employ.’’ A few days later, a U-2 flight identified the construction of a missile base at San Cristobal in western Cuba; Kennedy first saw the photographs on 16 October and duly assembled the National Security Council’s executive committee, which concluded on three possible courses of action: an air assault on the bases, a full – scale military invasion or a naval blockade to prevent the arrival of more weapons. Although the Joint Chiefs of Staff supported the second option, believing that the Soviets would not stop the United States from conquering Cuba, Kennedy was more cautious. He feared that “if they don’t take action in Cuba, they certainly will in Berlin’’. An air attack, too, would be unwise, giving the Soviets an ideal excuse to take West Berlin.

The naval blockade – or at least a more selective ‘quarantine’, focusing solely on the weapons – was also endorsed by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Under international law, it would represent an act of war, but Kennedy felt that the Soviets would not be provoked into an attack by a mere blockade. Despite a meeting with Soviet foreign affairs minister Andrei Gromyko, who assured him again that there were no offensive weapons in Cuba, Kennedy moved to obtain approval from the Organisation of American States (OAS) for military action. In support of the quarantine, which would occur in international waters, Argentina, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago offered destroyers, air force and other military units, escort ships and the use of naval bases.

In a telegram despatched late on 24 October, Khrushchev urged Kennedy to “understand that the Soviet Union cannot fail to reject the arbitrary demands of the United States”, regarding the blockade as “an act of aggression” which Russian ships would be ordered to ignore. Kennedy’s response was that his hand had been forced after repeated reassurances that no offensive weapons existed in Cuba and he implored his Soviet counterpart to “take necessary action to permit a restoration of the earlier situation’’. That same night, the Joint Chiefs instructed the Strategic Air Command to lift its defence readiness condition to ‘DEFCON 2’ – the second- highest state of military alertness – and the directive was deliberately transmitted uncoded to ensure that Soviet intelligence agents could understand it. The first efforts to enforce the blockade – intercepting the tanker Bucharest and boarding the Lebanese freighter Marcula – began the next day.

Tensions were raised still further when Kennedy authorised the loading of nuclear missiles onto American military aircraft and ordered low-level reconnaissance missions over Cuba to increase from twice daily to once every two hours. Secret negotiations began shortly thereafter to seek a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, with suggestions that the Soviets remove their weapons under the supervision of the United Nations and Fidel Castro publicly announce his refusal to accept them in future. In exchange, it was proposed that the United States would promise never to invade Cuba. The response from Kennedy was that his government was ‘‘unlikely to invade’’ if the missiles were removed. Early on 26 October, Khrushchev broadcast a message on Radio Moscow and wired Kennedy to the same effect: offering to remove the Cuban weapons in exchange for the United States dismantling their own Jupiter missile emplacements in Turkey.

Around midday, the crisis deepened when a U-2, flown by Rudolph Anderson, was shot down by one of the Cuban missiles; later, several Crusader aircraft on low – flying reconnaissance missions were also fired upon. Despite an earlier decision to order an attack under such circumstances, Kennedy reserved judgement. He was keen to accept Khrushchev’s offer, although the Turkish government was unhappy about relinquishing the Jupiter defences and such a trade would effectively undermine relations with a NATO ally. Ultimately, and after much deliberation, Kennedy agreed secretly to remove all missiles set in Turkey and respect Cuban sovereignty, in exchange for Khruschev’s removal of all weapons from the Caribbean island. However, the decision to remove the Turkish batteries was not made public at the time, with the effect that Khrushchev appeared to be the loser. His apparent ‘retreat’ from a situation which many observers felt that he had started – coupled with his perceived inability to handle international crises – has been cited as one of the factors in his overthrow two years later.

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