The Leaders | Cuban Missile Crisis U.S. President John F. Kennedy Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Prime Minister of Cuba Fidel Castro White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston Digital Identifier: JFKWHP-AR6283-A. In 1960, at the age of 43, John F. Kennedy became the youngest elected President in U.S. history, during a period of growing tensions in the U.S.-Soviet Cold War rivalry. Soon after taking office in 1961, he authorized the “Bay of Pigs” invasion led by the CIA and exiles from Cuba, whose government had been overthrown by communist rebels in 1959. This failed to overthrow leader Fidel Castro, and was a major embarrassment to Kennedy. Tensions with the Soviet Union further escalated during the 1961 Berlin Crisis. These events set the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 15, 1962 Kennedy was informed of the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba and called a meeting of a small circle of trusted advisors (known as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm).

He resisted pressure to react quickly with a surprise air strike, and took time to deliberate in secret on the possible courses of action. On October 22 the President announced a naval blockade on further arms shipments to Cuba. He then worked out an agreement with the Soviets, which involved a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles, a threat to attack within 24 hours if the offer wasn’t accepted, and a secret promise to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey in four-five months. Credit: Heinz Junge, Bundesarchiv. German Federal Archive. Accession number Bild 183-B0628-0015-035. Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953 after a power struggle following Stalin’s death, and served as Premier from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev began efforts to “de-Stalinize” Soviet society. However, in 1961 tensions between the superpowers escalated over the Berlin Crisis.

In the spring of 1962 Khrushchev made the decision to place Soviet missiles in Cuba secretly in order to give a quick boost to Soviet missile power, and to strengthen the USSR’s bargaining position regarding the Berlin question. After the missiles were discovered, Khrushchev initially maintained a hard line, expecting Kennedy to back down. However, as the President stood firm, Khrushchev reassessed the situation. Faced with the very real possibility of nuclear war, Khrushchev decided that “to save the world, we must retreat”. He agreed to withdraw the Soviet missiles, in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba and the President’s secret assurance that the U.S. would withdraw its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. As this American concession was not revealed publicly, the settlement was viewed by many as unfavorable to the USSR and hurt Khrushchev politically, contributing to his ouster from power in 1964. Credit: Warren K. Leffler. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. In January 1959 Fidel Castro’s revolutionary forces seized power.

While the Cuban leader initially claimed this was not a communist revolution, a year later Cuba formally aligned itself with the Soviet Union. Relations with the United States deteriorated further in 1961when the U.S. supported CIA-trained anti-Castro exiles in the Bay of Pigs invasion – a failed attempt to overthrow Castro and a major blow for President Kennedy. In this context, in the summer of 1962 Castro accepted the Soviet offer to install missiles in Cuba as a deterrent to a U.S. invasion. During the crisis Castro urged Khrushchev to defend Cuba and reject American demands to withdraw the missiles. On October 27, believing a U.S. attack was imminent, Castro urged Khrushchev to initiate a nuclear first strike. Castro was excluded from the negotiations and felt that, by agreeing to withdraw the missiles, the Soviets had betrayed Cuba. Search for: Cuban Missile Crisis - Cold War - HISTORY.com Cuban Missile Crisis A+E Networks Introduction During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S.

and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. In a TV address on October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy (1917-63) notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this news, many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s (1894-1971) offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. Google Discovering the Missiles After seizing power in the Caribbean island nation of Cuba in 1959, leftist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro (1926-) aligned himself with the Soviet Union.

Under Castro, Cuba grew dependent on the Soviets for military and economic aid. During this time, the U.S. and the Soviets (and their respective allies) were engaged in the Cold War (1945-91), an ongoing series of largely political and economic clashes. Did You Know? The actor Kevin Costner (1955-) starred in a movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis titled "Thirteen Days." Released in 2000, the movie's tagline was "You'll never believe how close we came." The two superpowers plunged into one of their biggest Cold War confrontations after the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane making a high-altitude pass over Cuba on October 14, 1962, photographed a Soviet SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile being assembled for installation. President Kennedy was briefed about the situation on October 16, and he immediately called together a group of advisors and officials known as the executive committee, or ExCom. For nearly the next two weeks, the president and his team wrestled with a diplomatic crisis of epic proportions, as did their counterparts in the Soviet Union. A New Threat to the U.S.

For the American officials, the urgency of the situation stemmed from the fact that the nuclear-armed Cuban missiles were being installed so close to the U.S. mainland–just 90 miles south of Florida . From that launch point, they were capable of quickly reaching targets in the eastern U.S. If allowed to become operational, the missiles would fundamentally alter the complexion of the nuclear rivalry between the U.S. and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which up to that point had been dominated by the Americans. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had gambled on sending the missiles to Cuba with the specific goal of increasing his nation’s nuclear strike capability. The Soviets had long felt uneasy about the number of nuclear weapons that were targeted at them from sites in Western Europe and Turkey, and they saw the deployment of missiles in Cuba as a way to level the playing field. Another key factor in the Soviet missile scheme was the hostile relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. The Kennedy administration had already launched one attack on the island–the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961–and Castro and Khrushchev saw the missiles as a means of deterring further U.S. aggression.

Weighing the Options From the outset of the crisis, Kennedy and ExCom determined that the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba was unacceptable. The challenge facing them was to orchestrate their removal without initiating a wider conflict–and possibly a nuclear war. In deliberations that stretched on for nearly a week, they came up with a variety of options, including a bombing attack on the missile sites and a full-scale invasion of Cuba. But Kennedy ultimately decided on a more measured approach. First, he would employ the U.S. Navy to establish a blockade, or quarantine, of the island to prevent the Soviets from delivering additional missiles and military equipment. Second, he would deliver an ultimatum that the existing missiles be removed. In a television broadcast on October 22, 1962, the president notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact the blockade and made it clear that the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this public declaration, people around the globe nervously waited for the Soviet response. Some Americans, fearing their country was on the brink of nuclear war, hoarded food and gas.

Showdown at Sea A crucial moment in the unfolding crisis arrived on October 24, when Soviet ships bound for Cuba neared the line of U.S. vessels enforcing the blockade. An attempt by the Soviets to breach the blockade would likely have sparked a military confrontation that could have quickly escalated to a nuclear exchange. But the Soviet ships stopped short of the blockade. Although the events at sea offered a positive sign that war could be averted, they did nothing to address the problem of the missiles already in Cuba. The tense standoff between the superpowers continued through the week, and on October 27, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba, and a U.S. invasion force was readied in Florida. (The 35-year-old pilot of the downed plane, Major Rudolf Anderson, is considered the sole U.S. combat casualty of the Cuban missile crisis.) “I thought it was the last Saturday I would ever see,” recalled U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1916-2009), as quoted by Martin Walker in “The Cold War.” A similar sense of doom was felt by other key players on both sides.

A Deal Ends the Standoff Despite the enormous tension, Soviet and American leaders found a way out of the impasse. During the crisis, the Americans and Soviets had exchanged letters and other communications, and on October 26, Khrushchev sent a message to Kennedy in which he offered to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for a promise by U.S. leaders not to invade Cuba. The following day, the Soviet leader sent a letter proposing that the USSR would dismantle its missiles in Cuba if the Americans removed their missile installations in Turkey. Officially, the Kennedy administration decided to accept the terms of the first message and ignore the second Khrushchev letter entirely. Privately, however, American officials also agreed to withdraw their nation’s missiles from Turkey. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy (1925-68) personally delivered the message to the Soviet ambassador in Washington , and on October 28, the crisis drew to a close. Both the Americans and Soviets were sobered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The following year, a direct “hot line” communication link was installed between Washington and Moscow to help defuse similar situations, and the superpowers signed two treaties related to nuclear weapons.

The Cold War was far from over, though. In fact, another legacy of the crisis was that it convinced the Soviets to increase their investment in an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. from Soviet territory. Tags Frequently Asked Questions | Cuban Missile Crisis Frequently Asked Questions Who was in EXCOMM, the advisory council to Kennedy, during the crisis? What was the Cuban Missile Crisis? “The Cuban Missile Crisis was a thirteen-day confrontation from October 15 to October 28, 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over the positioning of nuclear missiles in Cuba. In 1962, the Soviet Union secretly placed nuclear-tipped missiles on the Communist-led island of Cuba. After discovering the missiles in October, the U.S. responded by blockading Cuba. Following a period of intense discussions and fear of a nuclear catastrophe, President John F. Kennedy made a proposal to Premier Nikita Khrushchev that the Soviet leader accepted; The Soviets withdrew the missiles after the U.S. pledged publicly never to invade Cuba and promised privately to withdraw its own nuclear missiles from Turkey. What was the Cold War?

The Cold War was a political struggle between the Western world, represented by the United States and NATO allies and the Eastern Bloc, organized by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (sometimes referred to as the Soviet Union or USSR) and its allies. From roughly the end of World War II in 1945 until 1991, the U.S. and the Soviet Union competed against each other to demonstrate the superiority of each one’s politico-economic system: democracy and capitalism vs. authoritarianism and communism, During the Cold War, neither side directly engaged in all-out war with each other. However, they competed through proxy conflicts, whether political (supporting democratic or communist parties), economic (development aid), or military (supporting opposing forces in the “Third World”). Initially, the superpowers focused on post-World War II Europe as they tried to win over states to their sides. As the Cold War progressed and dividing lines in Europe were consolidated, the superpowers increasingly focused on the developing world in South America, Asia, and Africa. Who were the American and Soviet leaders during the Cuban Missile Crisis? John F. Kennedy was President of the United States, having been elected in 1960.

Nikita Khrushchev assumed control of the Soviet Union in 1953 following the death of the previous leader Joseph Stalin. What was EXCOMM? The Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or EXCOMM, was a group of American officials within the White House who were consulted during the Cuban Missile Crisis. EXCOMM served as an advisory council to Kennedy during the Crisis. The book The Kennedy Tapes , edited by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow, provides a transcript of the group’s deliberations. Click here for a list of EXCOMM members. Who was Fidel Castro? Fidel Castro was a revolutionary who in 1959 overthrew the government of Cuba, an island state 90 miles away from the U.S., and became its new leader. Castro first began his revolutionary struggle in 1953; after an initial defeat, he regrouped and launched a successful insurgency that caused President Fulgencio Batista to flee and allowed Castro to seize power. Why was Castro’s Cuba hostile to the U.S.? The Cuban government was initially neutral to the superpower competition. The Soviet Union initially was at first uninterested in Cuba, and Castro even toured the U.S.

in 1959. Yet Castro frayed the relationship with America when he threatened, and ultimately undertook, reforms that would harm American-owned property in the country. The increasingly hostile relationship with the U.S. provided an opening for the Soviet Union. Castro formed trade ties with Moscow and as Cuba grew closer to the USSR, relations with Washington deteriorated further. The U.S. revoked its diplomatic recognition of Cuba at the beginning of 1961. What is NATO? What was the Warsaw Pact? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, is an alliance of countries formed initially from a core of Western European and North American states (the U.S., Canada, the UK, and others). Founded in 1949, the alliance aimed to deter a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The alliance provided for collective defense, meaning that an attack against one member state was an attack against all members of the alliance. NATO still exists and has added many ex-Communist countries in Europe as part of the alliance. The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet version of NATO: it was an alliance of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites.

The alliance was formed to deter a Western invasion of the member states that were part of the USSR’s sphere of influence. It was founded in 1955, in part due to West Germany’s accession to NATO, and was sometimes referred to as the Eastern Bloc. The decline and fall of the Soviet Union led to the Warsaw Pact’s dissolution in 1991. What was the Berlin Blockade of 1948? During the negotiations ending World War II, the Allies agreed to split Germany into four parts: three parts in the western half of the country, controlled by the Western allies (the U.S., France, and the United Kingdom); and one part in the east controlled by the Soviet Union. The Western allies established a democratic, capitalist government in their portion while the Soviets put in place a communist government in the territory they controlled. Eventually, the territories split into two new countries: democratic West Germany and communist East Germany. Yet the former capital city of Berlin, situated in East Germany had also been divided into Western and Eastern zones. Therefore, due to the Western occupation of half of Berlin, an exclave of West Germany was surrounded by East Germany. For further information, consult this map and publication here .

In 1948, the Soviet Union tried to force the Western powers out of Berlin by blockading all land routes to West Berlin until full control of the city was handed over to the Soviets. The Western powers overcame this by airlifting supplies to Berlin, until the Soviets ended the blockade in 1949. What was the Berlin Crisis of 1958 to 1961? In 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued an ultimatum to NATO demanding that it relinquish West Berlin to East Germany. Khrushchev originally gave a six-month deadline, but this was continually pushed back until the crisis escalated in 1961. During the summer of 1961, Khrushchev met Kennedy in Vienna and demanded yet again that NATO hand over control of West Berlin to East Germany. This summit preceded the Soviet/East German decision to seal off West Berlin by building the Berlin Wall. Beginning on August 13, the Soviets and East Germans built a wall that bisected the city and prevented free passage between the Western and Eastern zones.

Beginning on October 27, American and Soviet forces faced off at “Checkpoint Charlie,” an access point controlling passage across the wall. The Berlin Crisis was eventually resolved when the United States acquiesced to the wall’s construction in November 1961. However, Khrushchev had not yet achieved his objective of establishing East German control over West Berlin. Khrushchev believed that the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba could be used as leverage in negotiations over Berlin. Khrushchev thought that Washington might trade the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba missiles for NATO’s retreat from West Berlin. Why did the Soviet Union put missiles in Cuba? The Soviet Union put missiles in Cuba for two primary reasons: (1) to boost the Soviet Union’s power, threatening the U.S. with nuclear attack from the Caribbean and (2) to bolster the Soviet Union’s bargaining position in its attempts to force West Berlin to join East Germany. Additional reasons included defending Cuba from American invasion and bolstering Soviet prestige. Why did the U.S. place missiles in Turkey? The U.S. had prepared for a possible war in Europe by placing nuclear weapons in allied countries.

Bombers and ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons were intended as a deterrent against a Soviet invasion of Germany and other NATO countries. Nuclear missiles were placed in Turkey, a NATO member that shared a border with two Soviet republics, because of its proximity to the Soviet Union. Why did the U.S. blockade Cuba? Many members of EXCOMM argued in favor of a military strike to destroy the nuclear missiles in Cuba before they became operational. President Kennedy, however, did not want to escalate to war so quickly. Instead, he decided to blockade Cuba to prevent the installation of additional Soviet nuclear missiles. While this step did not defuse the crisis, it bought the President time and avoided a direct attack against Cuba. What were the Soviet forces in Cuba? The Soviets installed 36 to 42 medium SS-4 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Cuba. Six of the missiles were decoy versions to deceive a potential American attack or for use in training. The missiles had a range of 1,100 nautical miles (1,266 miles) and could reach New Orleans, Miami, and Washington, DC.

Each missile’s warhead had an explosive capacity of about 1 megaton (the equivalent of one million tons of explosive), more than 60 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (which was only 16 kilotons, or the equivalent of 16,000 tons of explosive). Twelve short-range, Luna tactical nuclear missiles were also in Cuba. They had a range of about 17 nautical miles (20 miles) and were designed for use in battle: the Soviets would only use them in the event of an American invasion. Each missile’s warhead was delivered to Cuba: these had an explosive capacity of 2 kilotons (an eighth the size of the weapon used at Hiroshima). Soviet commanders were initially authorized to use these weapons with no further input from Moscow. That changed on October 27, when the Soviet government instructed them not to be fired without authorization from Moscow. The Soviets also had 80 Sopka-variant cruise missiles in four missile batteries arrayed along the Cuban coast.

Many, if not all, of the warheads for these missiles were delivered to Cuba by the beginning of the Missile Crisis on October 14, 1962. Each missile’s warhead had an explosive capacity of 12 kilotons (three-quarters of the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima). These missiles had a range of 40 nautical miles (46 miles): they were to be used to counter an American invasion of Cuba. There were also 42 unassembled IL-28 bombers (NATO codename: “Beagle) in Cuba (only seven were assembled by the end of the crisis). These bombers had a range of 600 nautical miles: from their airbases, the bombers could hit Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami. There were six nuclear bombs in Cuba capable of being carried by the IL-28s, each with a 12 kiloton yield. The Soviets had over 40,000 troops in Cuba. Were there any Soviet weapons that did not make it to Cuba? Yes. 24 intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) were also intended to be installed in Cuba.

These had a range of 2,200 nautical miles (2,532 miles). These missiles could have hit as far away as Chicago, Boston, and even Newfoundland. The U.S. blockade prevented these from being delivered to Cuba. Were the missiles in Cuba capable of nuking American cities? Yes. 45 warheads suitable for use on the 36 MRBMs arrived on October 4, 1962. Just before the blockade took effect on October 21, 24 warheads for the IRBMs had arrived; however, the missiles to carry those warheads were never delivered because of the blockade. Had the Americans discovered the missile sites two weeks later, the MRBMs would have been armed and ready for launch against the United States. Had the IL-28s successfully penetrated America’s air defenses in the southeast, they could have hit American cities. If the U.S. had invaded Cuba, the local commander had been authorized to use tactical nuclear weapons in defense of the island. President Kennedy and his advisers were not aware of this. If tactical nuclear weapons had been used against U.S. forces, escalation to full nuclear war between the superpowers would have been very likely.

What did the United States know about the Cuban missiles at the time of the crisis? The Americans identified 40 missile launchers in Cuba: these were the apparatuses necessary to launch a missile. There were 24 MRBM launchers and 16 IRBMs launchers. At the time, according to Robert McNamara, the Americans did not believe there were nuclear warheads in Cuba. They also only estimated that there were 10,000 Soviet soldiers in Cuba, not the 40,000 that were actually there. What was the “Secret Deal” between Robert F. Kennedy and Anatoly Dobrynin? On October 27, President Kennedy dispatched his brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to make an offer to the Soviet ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Dobrynin, in the hope of defusing the crisis. Kennedy offered Dobrynin two things in exchange for Soviet removal of the Cuban missiles: (1) the U.S. would publically pledge never to invade Cuba and (2) the U.S. would secretly withdraw missiles from Turkey. The U.S. refused to publically admit to removing the Turkish missiles because it did not want to appear weak.

The Soviet Union accepted this offer the next day. Why did the Soviets withdraw the missiles? The reasons why Khrushchev withdrew missiles from Cuba are still somewhat uncertain. Scholars conclude that two major factors were at play in the Soviet decision: (1) Khrushchev knew that war over Cuba could quickly escalate into nuclear war that would destroy both superpowers and (2) the Soviet government won what Khrushchev considered significant concessions from the U.S: the pledge never to invade Cuba and to remove American missiles from Turkey. Who was in EXCOMM, the advisory council to Kennedy, during the crisis? 1. President John F. Kennedy 2. Attorney General Robert Kennedy 3. Secretary of State Dean Rusk 4. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara 5. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell Taylor 6. CIA Director John McCone 7. Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon 8. National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy 9. Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen 10. Undersecretary of State (Rusk’s deputy) George Ball 11. Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric 12.

Deputy Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson 13. Ambassador at Large for Soviet Affairs Llewellyn “Tommy” Thompson 14. Assistant Secretary of State Edwin Martin 15. State policy planner Walt Rostow 16. Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze. Others involved in Cuban Missile Crisis: 1. Vice President Lyndon Johnson attended almost all of the key White House meetings. 2. UN ambassador and former presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson traveled to Washington and joined a few of the White House sessions, as did former Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett. 3. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave private advice and attended some meetings at the State Department. . Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) - The New York Times The New York Times Supported by Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) News about Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) , including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

More This essay was written by Michael Dobbs , the author of a cold war trilogy that includes “One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War” and “Six Months in 1945: F.D.R., Stalin, Khrushchev, and Truman — From World War to Cold War.” President John F. Kennedy was informed about the deployment of Soviet medium-range missiles on Cuba shortly after 8 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 16, 1962. His first reaction on hearing the news from National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy was to accuse the Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev of a double-cross. “He can’t do this to me,” he sputtered. Thus began the celebrated “13 days” that brought the world closer than ever before — or since — to a nuclear war, a period now remembered in the West as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis peaked on Oct.

27, “Black Saturday,” when a series of startling events, including the shooting down of an American U-2 spy plane over Cuba, suggested that neither Khrushchev nor Kennedy fully controlled their own military machines. The presidential aide and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. described the October 1962 confrontation as the “most dangerous moment in human history.” Khrushchev’s motivations in sending nuclear-tipped missiles to Cuba in the summer of 1962 have been the subject of great debate. Kennedy administration officials argued afterward that the Soviet leader acted for global strategic reasons. Prior to the missile crisis, the United States had around 3,500 nuclear warheads capable of reaching the Soviet Union, a 10-1 advantage over the Soviet Union. By building missile bases in Cuba capable of lobbing 60 nuclear warheads into the United States, Khrushchev would be able to redress this military imbalance somewhat, although it would have left him far short of achieving first strike capability.

In memoirs written after his ouster as Soviet leader in 1964, Khrushchev claimed that he was primarily motivated by the desire to defend the Cuban revolution, and his ally Fidel Castro, from aggression by the United States. The Kennedy administration had supported an abortive invasion of Cuba by right-wing exiles at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, and had launched a campaign of sabotage against the Castro regime, known as Operation Mongoose. As Khrushchev later wrote, “One thought kept hammering away in my brain: what will happen if we lose Cuba? It will be a terrible blow to Marxism-Leninism.” Khrushchev also had more personal reasons for wanting to get even with Kennedy, whom he regarded as an inexperienced leader young enough to be his son. The United States had stationed medium-range Jupiter missiles in Turkey, across the Black Sea from Khrushchev’s summer retreat in Sochi. Complaining that there were “U.S. missiles aimed at my dacha,” the Soviet premier thought it was “high time America learned what it feels like to have her own land and her own people threatened.” Read More...

The first Soviet missiles arrived in Cuba on Sept. 9, as part of an extensive military buildup that included the deployment of surface-to-air missiles for shooting down American U-2 spy planes, advanced MIG fighter jets and submarines equipped with nuclear torpedoes. The Soviets also sent three fully-armed combat regiments to Cuba to fight alongside their Cuban allies. Khrushchev intended to keep the missile deployment secret until early November, when he would travel to Havana and present the Americans with a military fait accompli. The belated discovery of the Soviet missile deployment by an American U-2 on Oct. 14 threw Khrushchev’s plans into disarray, and posed a huge political challenge for Kennedy. The president had earlier insisted that the United States could not accept the deployment of Soviet “offensive” weapons in Cuba. He now had to find a way to get Khrushchev to back down, even at the risk of nuclear war. Fortunately for Kennedy, he knew that the Soviet missiles were not yet operational. That gave him a breathing space of a few days to privately consider his options with an ad hoc group of his closest advisers.

The Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm, included his brother Robert, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Maxwell Taylor, and the presidential speechwriter Theodore Sorensen. The uniformed military, including Taylor and Gen. Curtis LeMay, the legendary Air Force chief, were unanimously in favor of air strikes followed up by an invasion. What they did not know at the time was that the Soviet forces on Cuba were equipped with 98 tactical nuclear weapons that could have been used to wipe out an American invading force or the United States naval base at Guantánamo. The use of these weapons on Cuba could quickly have escalated to an all-out nuclear war. At first, Kennedy also favored air strikes against the missile sites, but changed his mind after being informed that it was impossible to guarantee complete success. He then embraced a plan originally suggested by McNamara for a naval blockade around Cuba, as a way of demonstrating American resolve while allowing time for negotiations with Khrushchev. The president went on television at 7 p.m. on Oct.

22 to announce the blockade, which he described with the more innocuous-sounding term, “quarantine.” Like Kennedy, Khrushchev initially adopted a bellicose position when he heard about the American action. He talked about using tactical nuclear weapons against an American invading force, and wiping out Guantánamo, but he also took steps to avoid a confrontation. He ordered Soviet ships carrying missiles and other military equipment to turn around before the quarantine came into effect at 10 a.m. on Oct. 24. The missile-carrying ships had been heading back to the Soviet Union for some 30 hours when Rusk claimed to have uttered the memorable line, “We’re eyeball to eyeball, and the other side just blinked.” The most dangerous moments of the missile crisis came not from the supposed “eyeball to eyeball” confrontation between Kennedy and Khrushchev on Oct. 24, but from events spiraling out of control three days later on “Black Saturday.” In addition to the U-2 shot down over Cuba, another American U-2 on a routine air sampling mission to the North Pole blundered into Soviet air space.

The Soviets sent up MIG fighters to try to shoot the intruder down; the Alaska Air Defense Command responded by scrambling nuclear-armed F-102 interceptors. In the Caribbean, a frazzled Soviet submarine commander considered firing his nuclear torpedo against United States destroyers attempting to bring him to the surface. In the meantime, Soviet troops brought nuclear-tipped cruise missiles to the periphery of the Guantánamo naval base, and transported nuclear warheads to the medium-range missile sites at Sagua La Grande in central Cuba. Convinced that an attack by the United States was imminent, Castro urged Khrushchev to consider a nuclear first strike against the United States. That night, Kennedy sent his brother Robert to meet with Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, to offer a noninvasion pledge to Cuba and warn that time was running out. Acting without the knowledge of most members of the ExComm, Robert Kennedy promised to withdraw U.S. Jupiters from Turkey within five months of a withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. That part of the deal remained secret for many years. Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of Soviet missiles over Radio Moscow at 9 a.m.

Washington time on Oct. 28 (5 p.m. Moscow time). Like Kennedy, he had independently concluded that he was losing control over events, and needed to act quickly to bring the crisis to a close. Early histories of the missile crisis drew heavily on accounts by Kennedy aides who praised the president for his brilliant “crisis management” and depicted Khrushchev’s climb down as an unalloyed victory for the United States. Mr. Schlesinger wrote that Kennedy “dazzled the world” through a “combination of toughness and restraint, of will, nerve, and wisdom, so brilliantly controlled, so matchlessly calibrated.” As more evidence became available from American, Russian and Cuban sources, scholars and participants developed a more nuanced view.

After learning that the Soviets had deployed 98 tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba to wipe out any American invading force, McNamara concluded in 2007 that crisis management was largely a myth and “it was luck that prevented nuclear war.” Milestones: 1961–1968 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1961–1968 The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in a number of ways, featuring calculations and miscalculations as well as direct and secret communications and miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level with relatively little input from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process. Aerial view of missile launch site at San Cristobal, Cuba. (John F. Kennedy Library) After the failed U.S.

attempt to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion, and while the Kennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, in July 1962 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Cuban premier Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. Construction of several missile sites began in the late summer, but U.S. intelligence discovered evidence of a general Soviet arms build-up on Cuba, including Soviet IL–28 bombers, during routine surveillance flights, and on September 4, 1962, President Kennedy issued a public warning against the introduction of offensive weapons into Cuba. Despite the warning, on October 14 a U.S. U–2 aircraft took several pictures clearly showing sites for medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) under construction in Cuba. These images were processed and presented to the White House the next day, thus precipitating the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy summoned his closest advisers to consider options and direct a course of action for the United States that would resolve the crisis.

Some advisers—including all the Joint Chiefs of Staff—argued for an air strike to destroy the missiles, followed by a U.S. invasion of Cuba; others favored stern warnings to Cuba and the Soviet Union. The President decided upon a middle course. On October 22, he ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba. The use of “quarantine” legally distinguished this action from a blockade, which assumed a state of war existed; the use of “quarantine” instead of “blockade” also enabled the United States to receive the support of the Organization of American States. That same day, Kennedy sent a letter to Khrushchev declaring that the United States would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba, and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed, and return all offensive weapons to the U.S.S.R. The letter was the first in a series of direct and indirect communications between the White House and the Kremlin throughout the remainder of the crisis. The President also went on national television that evening to inform the public of the developments in Cuba, his decision to initiate and enforce a “quarantine,” and the potential global consequences if the crisis continued to escalate.

The tone of the President’s remarks was stern, and the message unmistakable and evocative of the Monroe Doctrine: “It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.” The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced a military readiness status of DEFCON 3 as U.S. naval forces began implementation of the quarantine and plans accelerated for a military strike on Cuba. On October 24, Khrushchev responded to Kennedy’s message with a statement that the U.S. “blockade” was an “act of aggression” and that Soviet ships bound for Cuba would be ordered to proceed. Nevertheless, during October 24 and 25, some ships turned back from the quarantine line; others were stopped by U.S. naval forces, but they contained no offensive weapons and so were allowed to proceed. Meanwhile, U.S. reconnaissance flights over Cuba indicated the Soviet missile sites were nearing operational readiness. With no apparent end to the crisis in sight, U.S. forces were placed at DEFCON 2—meaning war involving the Strategic Air Command was imminent.

On October 26, Kennedy told his advisors it appeared that only a U.S. attack on Cuba would remove the missiles, but he insisted on giving the diplomatic channel a little more time. The crisis had reached a virtual stalemate. That afternoon, however, the crisis took a dramatic turn. ABC News correspondent John Scali reported to the White House that he had been approached by a Soviet agent suggesting that an agreement could be reached in which the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba if the United States promised not to invade the island. While White House staff scrambled to assess the validity of this “back channel” offer, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message the evening of October 26, which meant it was sent in the middle of the night Moscow time. It was a long, emotional message that raised the specter of nuclear holocaust, and presented a proposed resolution that remarkably resembled what Scali reported earlier that day. “If there is no intention,” he said, “to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.” Although U.S.

experts were convinced the message from Khrushchev was authentic, hope for a resolution was short-lived. The next day, October 27, Khrushchev sent another message indicating that any proposed deal must include the removal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey. That same day a U.S. U–2 reconnaissance jet was shot down over Cuba. Kennedy and his advisors prepared for an attack on Cuba within days as they searched for any remaining diplomatic resolution. It was determined that Kennedy would ignore the second Khrushchev message and respond to the first one. That night, Kennedy set forth in his message to the Soviet leader proposed steps for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba under supervision of the United Nations, and a guarantee that the United States would not attack Cuba. It was a risky move to ignore the second Khrushchev message. Attorney General Robert Kennedy then met secretly with Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, and indicated that the United States was planning to remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey anyway, and that it would do so soon, but this could not be part of any public resolution of the missile crisis.

The next morning, October 28, Khrushchev issued a public statement that Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba. The crisis was over but the naval quarantine continued until the Soviets agreed to remove their IL–28 bombers from Cuba and, on November 20, 1962, the United States ended its quarantine. U.S. Jupiter missiles were removed from Turkey in April 1963. The Cuban missile crisis stands as a singular event during the Cold War and strengthened Kennedy’s image domestically and internationally. It also may have helped mitigate negative world opinion regarding the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Two other important results of the crisis came in unique forms. First, despite the flurry of direct and indirect communications between the White House and the Kremlin—perhaps because of it—Kennedy and Khrushchev, and their advisers, struggled throughout the crisis to clearly understand each others’ true intentions, while the world hung on the brink of possible nuclear war.

In an effort to prevent this from happening again, a direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin was established; it became known as the “Hotline.” Second, having approached the brink of nuclear conflict, both superpowers began to reconsider the nuclear arms race and took the first steps in agreeing to a nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Nikita Khrushchev - Cold War - HISTORY.com Nikita Khrushchev A+E Networks Introduction Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. Yet Khrushchev could be authoritarian in his own right, crushing a revolt in Hungary and approving the construction of the Berlin Wall. Known for his colorful speeches, he once took off and brandished his shoe at the United Nations.

Google Nikita Khrushchev: The Early Years Khrushchev was born on April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a small Russian village near the Ukrainian border. At age 14 he moved with his family to the Ukrainian mining town of Yuzovka, where he apprenticed as a metalworker and performed other odd jobs. Despite his religious upbringing, Khrushchev joined the communist Bolsheviks in 1918, more than a year after they had seized power in the Russian Revolution . During the subsequent Russian Civil War, Khrushchev’s first wife, with whom he had two children, died of typhus. He later remarried and had four more children. Did You Know? During the “kitchen debate” of 1959, so named because it took place in a model kitchen set up for a trade exhibition in Moscow, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, “Let’s compete.

Who can produce the most goods for the people, that system is better and it will win.” In 1929 Khrushchev moved to Moscow, where he steadily rose through the Communist Party ranks. Eventually he entered the inner circle of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin , who by that time had consolidated control over the country and instituted a bloody purge of perceived enemies. Millions of people were killed or imprisoned in Gulag labor camps, and millions more died in famines brought on by the forced collectivization of agriculture. Khrushchev Takes Over for Stalin During World War II , Khrushchev mobilized troops to fight Nazi Germany in the Ukraine and at Stalingrad. After the war, he helped to rebuild the devastated countryside while simultaneously stifling Ukrainian nationalist dissent. By the time Stalin died in March 1953, Khrushchev had positioned himself as a possible successor. Six months later, he became head of the Communist Party and one of the most powerful people in the USSR. At first, Khrushchev and other high-ranking officials ruled through a form of collective leadership.

But in 1955 he organized the ouster of Premier Georgi Malenkov and replaced him with an ally, Nikolai Bulganin. Khrushchev foiled a Malenkov-led coup attempt in June 1957 and took over the premiership the following March. Khrushchev Begins the De-Stalinization Process Once a loyal Stalinist, Khrushchev gave a long speech in February 1956 that criticized Stalin for arresting and deporting opponents, for elevating himself above the party and for incompetent wartime leadership, among other things. This withering, albeit incomplete, indictment of Stalin was supposed to remain secret. By that June, however, the U.S. State Department had published the complete text. Starting in 1957, Khrushchev made some minor attempts to rehabilitate Stalin’s image. But he switched course once again in 1961, when the city of Stalingrad was renamed and Stalin’s remains were removed from Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square . Emboldened by Khrushchev’s so-called “secret speech,” protestors took to the streets in the Soviet satellites of Poland and Hungary.

The Polish revolt was resolved fairly peacefully, but the Hungarian revolt was violently suppressed with troops and tanks. In all, at least 2,500 Hungarians were killed in late 1956, and about 13,000 were wounded. Many more fled to the West, and others were arrested or deported. On the domestic front, Khrushchev worked—not always successfully—to increase agricultural production and raise living standards. He also reduced the power of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police, released many political prisoners, relaxed artistic censorship, opened up more of the country to foreign visitors and inaugurated the space age in 1957 with the launch of the satellite Sputnik. Two years later, a Soviet rocket hit the moon, and in 1961 Soviet astronaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first man in space. Khrushchev’s Relationship With Foreign Leaders Khrushchev had a complicated relationship with the West. A fervent believer in communism, he nonetheless preferred peaceful coexistence with capitalist countries. Unlike Stalin, he even visited the United States.

Relations between the two superpowers deteriorated somewhat in 1960 when the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside their territory. The following year, Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in order to stop East Germans from fleeing to capitalist West Germany. Cold War tensions reached a high point in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba. The world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear conflict, but, after a 13-day standoff, Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons. In return, U.S. President John F. Kennedy , who one year earlier had authorized the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, publicly consented not to attack Cuba. Kennedy also privately agreed to take American nuclear weapons out of Turkey. In July 1963, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union negotiated a partial nuclear test ban. One of the sharpest thorns in Khrushchev’s side was fellow communist Mao Zedong , the leader of China.

Starting around 1960, the two sides engaged in an increasingly vindictive war of words, with Khrushchev calling Mao a “left revisionist” who failed to comprehend modern warfare. The Chinese, meanwhile, criticized Khrushchev as a “psalm-singing buffoon” who underestimated the nature of Western imperialism. Khrushchev’s Fall From Power The break with China and food shortages in the USSR eroded Khrushchev’s legitimacy in the eyes of other high-ranking Soviet officials, who were already bothered by what they saw as his erratic tendency to undercut their authority. In October 1964 Khrushchev was called back from a vacation in Pitsunda, Georgia , and forced to resign as both premier and head of the Communist Party. Khrushchev wrote his memoirs and quietly lived out the remainder of his days before dying of a heart attack in September 1971. Nonetheless, his spirit of reform lived on during the perestroika era of the 1980s. Tags Cuban Missile Crisis - John F.

Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Missile Crisis For thirteen days in October 1962 the world waited—seemingly on the brink of nuclear war—and hoped for a peaceful resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the island of Cuba. President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. After many long and difficult meetings, Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade, or a ring of ships, around Cuba. The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies. He demanded the removal of the missiles already there and the destruction of the sites. On October 22, President Kennedy spoke to the nation about the crisis in a televised address. No one was sure h ow Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would respond to the naval blockade and US demands.

But the leaders of both superpowers recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal in which the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites in exchange for a pledge from the United States not to invade Cuba. In a separate deal, which remained secret for more than twenty-five years, the United States also agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba, they escalated the building of their military arsenal; the missile crisis was over, the arms race was not. In 1963, there were signs of a lessening of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In his commencement address at American University, President Kennedy urged Americans to reexamine Cold War stereotypes and myths and called for a strategy of peace that would make the world safe for diversity. Two actions also signaled a warming in relations between the superpowers: the establishment of a teletype "Hotline" between the Kremlin and the White House and the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on July 25, 1963.

In language very different from his inaugural address, President Kennedy told Americans in June 1963, "For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline Home > Timelines > Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline Timeline Description: The Cuban Missile Crisis is a time when the United States and the Soviet Union almost had a nuclear war. When the U.S. discovered offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, it started a tense period of 13 days while the world watched to see if the Soviets would remove the missiles, just 90 miles from the U.S. Date October 15, 1962 A U2 spyplane discovers missiles in Cuba. Air Force Pilot Richard Heyser flies a spyplane over Cuba and takes photos of Russian medium-range missiles. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has asked Cuba President Fidel Castro if he could put them there in May. October 16, 1962 Ex-Comm has its first meeting.

Ex-Comm, a group of American political leaders, meets for the first time to discuss the Soviet missiles. Ex-Comm would meet several times throughout the crisis and the members rarely agreed on what to do. October 17, 1962 Photos show evidence of long-range missiles. More photos of the missile sites are analyzed and show that Cuba also has long-range Soviet missiles. These missiles are capable of traveling 2,200 miles. October 18, 1962 Robert Kennedy meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Attorney General Robert Kennedy keeps a previously scheduled meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, but does not mention the missiles. Gromyko tells Kennedy that the only help the Soviet Union is giving to Cuba is assistance growing crops and missiles that are only for defense. October 19, 1962 Ex-Comm suggests quarantining Cuba. Ex-Comm meets and discusses sending U.S. ships to Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from reaching the island. They are careful to call it a quarantine because a blockade is an act of war. October 20, 1962 Robert Kennedy gives Ex-Comm's recommendation to the president.

After meeting all day the previous day, Robert Kennedy tells the president that Ex-Comm recommends a quarantine. President Kennedy was in Chicago, but lies about having a cold so that he can return to Washington to deal with the crisis. October 21, 1962 Ted Sorenson writes one of the most important speeches President Kennedy will ever give. Attorney and advisor to the president, Ted Sorenson, writes the speech that Kennedy will give to the nation. Informing Americans that the Soviets have missiles in Cuba that are pointed at the U.S. will be an important moment in American history and one of the most frightening speech as president ever gives. October 22, 1962 President Kennedy gives a televised speech to the nation. President Kennedy gives a speech that is carried live on television stations across the country to inform Americans that missiles have been discovered in Cuba. He tells Americans that he has ordered a Navy quarantine around Cuba and orders the Soviets to remove the missiles. October 23, 1962 Soviet ships on their way to Cuba are stopped. Khrushchev orders Soviet ships on their way to Cuba to stop in the Atlantic about 750 miles away. This prevents a confrontation with U.S.

ships that are around Cuba, although Soviet submarines trailed behind the U.S. ships as they moved into place. October 24, 1962 Khrushchev refuses to remove the missiles from Cuba. Saying that the U.S. will not intimidate the Soviets, Khrushchev refuses to remove the missiles from Cuba. He also accuses Kennedy of putting the world at risk of a nuclear war by ordering the quarantine. October 25, 1962 Kennedy orders increased flights over to Cuba. Making no progress with his communications with Khrushchev, President Kennedy orders flights over Cuba to be increased from once to twice per day. Pilots also prepare to begin night flights as the U.S. monitors the Cuban missiles. October 26, 1962 The U.S. begins discussions about invading Cuba. Concerned that the Soviets may not remove the missiles from Cuba, Ex-Comm begins to discuss plans to invade Cuba to take control of the missiles. Doing this would most likely result in war. October 27, 1962 An American pilot flies off course into Soviet airspace.

Charles Maultsby, an American pilot, gets lost flying a mission to Alaska and ends up in Soviet airspace. An American jet rescues him and leads him back to the U.S. before the Soviets can shoot his plane down. October 27, 1962 President Kennedy agrees to not invade Cuba. After Khrushchev says that he will remove the missiles from Cuba if Kennedy promises not to invade Cuba, Kennedy agrees to the proposal. He also secretly agrees to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey. The world goes to bed that night waiting to see if Khrushchev will accept the arrangement and bring the crisis to an end. October 28, 1962 Khrushchev agrees to remove the missiles. Khrushchev gives a speech on Radio Moscow and says that he has agreed to Kennedy's arrangement. The missiles will be removed, Cuba will not be invaded, and the crisis comes to an end. <a href="">Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline</a>

Question: Who was the Russian leader at the time of the Cuban missile crisis
Answer: Kruschev