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Cuban Missile Crisis
Andrew Wood and Dave Ryan
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A Brief Chronology
May, 1962: Khrushchev makes veiled
references to a plot (How would the U.S. feel to
have missiles pointing at them, as they have
missiles pointed at us?)
September: JFK and Congress issue warnings
to USSR that US will deal harshly with any
threats to national security
October 14: U2 recon. flight over Cuba spotssites installing nuclear missiles
October 15: Presence of missiles is confirmed
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Chronology, Continued
October 16: President Kennedy notified
October 16-22: Secret deliberations on what
should be done
October 22: Kennedy tells nation his plan for
blockade and quarantine
October 23: OAS endorses naval quarantine
October 24: Naval quarantine begins andsuccessfully changes course of many Soviet
ships
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Chronology, Continued
October 25: One Soviet ship challenges naval
quarantine; Kennedy lets it pass
October 25: At the UN, Adlai Stevenson directly
challenges the Soviet ambassador to admit to
the existence of missiles, when the ambassador
refuses, Stevenson wheels out pictures of the
missile sites
October 26: Soviets raise possibility for a deal:if we withdraw missiles will America promise not
to invade Cuba?
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Chronology, Continued
October 27: Soviets demand that Americansalso withdraw missiles from Turkey; Major
Anderson’s plane is missing over Cuba,
presumably shot down; U.S. recon plane straysover Soviet airspace…high tensions
Kennedy tells Khrushchev that he will acceptthe proposal of the 26th, Kennedy tells hisbrother to tell the Soviet Ambassador that
though the Turkey missiles would not be part ofthe bargain, they would be removed in time
October 28: USSR agrees to withdraw missiles
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Soviet Decisions
Motivations
Close the missile gap—Currently far
behind U.S. in terms of number of
missiles Verbal threats no longer effective with
overwhelming evidence of U.S.
superiority
Protect Cuba
Reciprocity: The U.S. has missiles
pointing at us, let’s see how they feel
now
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Soviet Decisions, Continued
Inability to use the missiles
If fired a missile, repercussions would be
severe
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Why Khrushchev Settled
Effectiveness of naval quarantine
Conventional inferiority in the Caribbean
No possible countermove
Overwhelming world support for the U.S.
Other possible reasons
Got what he wanted?No U.S. invasion of Cuba
U.S. missiles withdrawn from Turkey
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The American Decision
In September Kennedy had statedand Congress had passed aresolution saying that if the SovietUnion placed offensive weapons in
Cuba we would not tolerate it. Could we then rely solely on
diplomacy? Kennedys thoughtJohn could be ―impeached‖ if hedidn’t act in accordance with hisprior warnings
Determined in first 48 hours of crisis
that the removal of missiles was theprimary objective
This objective effectively ruled outisolated diplomacy, and left twooptions…
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The American Decision cont.
Option 1 - Air Strike
On October 17th, President Kennedy ―made
the flat statement that there would definitely be
an air strike, at least against the missile sites,and perhaps against wider targets‖ (Bundy
394)
Reservations from others, airstrike may be
using a ―sledgehammer‖ to kill a ―fly
Later that day Robert McNamara suggestspolicy in between diplomacy and an air strike
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The American Decision cont.
Option 2 – Blockade Advocated early on by McNamara and Robert
Kennedy, blockade would not require instant killing,but critics feared it would not remove the missiles
and would allow Soviets time to complete what theyalready had in Cuba
Douglas Dillon strengthened blockade argument bysuggesting that it would only be a first step, that ifKhrushchev did not remove the missiles to lift it,then more could be done
By Friday the 19th
, the committee working on theblockade adapted it into a quarantine, on SundayKennedy accepted their plan as the course ofaction
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Could America have acted
differently? Could we have used the crisis to remove
Castro? Our warnings all along had been against offensive
weapons so once that warning is tested if we use itto attack Castro are we sticking to our word?
Could we have tried diplomacy before resortingto the quarantine? If we didn’t keep secrecy, Khrushchev could have
proclaimed defiance, or denouncedquarantine…then both countries would be inpositions where they’re heading straight for eachother and can’t just turn back
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Castro’s Role
No real role in decisionmaking
Apparently out of touch withthe situation
Oct. 26: ―Aggressionimminent/imperialistsdisregarding worldopinion‖—Clearly not thecase
Khrushchev plays alongto some extent but it isclear he disagrees withhim (―your suggestionwould have started athermonuclear worldwar‖)
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Questions
Do you feel Major Anderson’s death justifiedmore aggressive action?
Seeing as how our options in the crisis weresomewhat dictated by the warnings we issued
in September…should we have issued thosewarnings?
Robert Kennedy likened an air strike to PearlHarbor (Bundy 394), was that a fair analogy?
If the m issi les in Cuba were conventional,and neither the Sov iet Union nor the U.S.
pos sessed any nuc lear weapons, wou ld the
cris is have been avoided?
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