1. CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS

2. Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro
CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS
Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro

3. Introduction
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States regarding the deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

4. Background
For many people the twelve days of the Cuban missile crisis was the most frightening of their lives.
Kennedy had been elected as United States president by promising to get tough with the communists.

5. In April 1962, America had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey.

6. U.S. Advantage
The United States had a dramatic advantage in nuclear weapons.
In 1961, the U.S. started deploying 15 Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) in Turkey, these directly threatened cities in the western parts of the Soviet Union.

8. Soviet premier Khrushchev publicly expressed his anger of the missiles deployed in Turkey. He regarded the missiles as a personal affront.

9. Deployment of Missiles
Khrushchev planned the deployment in May 1962, by late July over sixty Soviet ships were en route to Cuba.
On September 4, 1962 Kennedy told congress that there were no offensive missiles in Cuba.

10. Missiles discovered by U-2 Surveillance planes Medium Range
CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS
Missiles discovered by U-2 Surveillance planes
Medium Range
ballistic missile
base

11. Missiles Found in Cuba
In 1962, U.S. intelligence discovered that Cuba was building nuclear missile sites throughout Cuba.
When the sites were completed, many East Coast cities including NY and DC would be in range of nuclear weapons.
Kennedy went on the offensive, blaming Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for provoking world peace and demanded for the removal of the missiles from Cuba.

12. The missiles were not discovered by the U. S
The missiles were not discovered by the U.S. until photographs were shown to Kennedy on October, 16, 1962.
Kennedy announced the discovery of the installations in a televised address on October 22.

14. The missiles had been placed to protect Cuba from further planned attacks after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion
The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 16th, 1962.
The crisis ended twelve days later on October 28, 1962.

16. Televised Address Oct. 22 JFK informs the US of the Soviet missiles
“quarantine placed around Cuba”

18. 90 miles from United States
FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
90 miles from United States
Missiles now 5 minutes away from united States

21. THE PLAYERS EX – COMM Kennedy’s group of advisors
Hand-picked group of 19 men helped Kennedy through the crisis
Most had Law backgrounds so to an international law approach

22. X-COMM Robert F Kennedy Attorney General JFK’s confident and
Facilitator of meetings
Against Air strikes
Ambassador Dobrynin

23. Theodore Sorenson Special Counsel to President Dove perspective
Wrote most of the correspondence
Chief of Staff
Dove

24. X-COMM R Robert McNamara Secretary of Defense
One of most important: Supported blockade
Job was to monitor blockade and reigning in the military
Dove R

25. Dean Rusk
Secretary of State
Cautious diplomat
Wanted diplomacy
“We are still here”

26. Anatoly Dobrynin Anatoly Dobrynin
Soviet Ambassador. Good relationship with the Kennedys and opened the talks with the Soviet Union

27. McGEORGE BUNDY
National Security Advisor
Former Dean of Harvard
Played Devils advocate
Supported not taking out missiles in Turkey

28. Adlai Stevenson
Ambassador to the United Nations
Director of CIA

29. Curtis LeMay
Chief of Staff United States Air Force

30. Dean Acheson
Advisor to Ex-Com Republican Advisor to President Eisenhower

31. Advisor and
Speech writer
for JFK
Ted Sorenson

32. Bay of Pigs

33. CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS

34. Cuba provided with arms
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Soviet arms flooded into Cuba. The Soviet Union publicly announced that it was supplying Cuba with arms in May By September, Cuba had thousands of Soviet radar vans, missile erectors, jet bombers, jet fighters, tanks, and patrol boats, as well as 5000 Soviet technicians to help maintain the weapons.

35. So near America?
Whilst conventional arms were being supplied to Cuba, an island next door to the USA, the Americans watched with great alarm, the question being whether the USSR would dare put nuclear missiles on Cuba. On 11 September, Kennedy warned the USSR, and on the same day, the USSR assured the USA that they had no intention of placing nuclear missiles on Cuba.

36. BUT…
On Sunday, 14 October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane was sent to Cuba, flying over and taking amazingly detailed photographs of missile sites in Cuba. It was obvious to all US military experts that these were nuclear missile sites, and that they were being built by the USSR. Over the next few days, it was confirmed that some sites were already supplied with missiles, and 20 Soviet ships carrying missiles were also on the way to Cuba.

37. Nuclear launch sites in Cuba, 1962

38. What should America do?
As both the USA and USSR were now in possession of many nuclear weapons, Kennedy had five main choices, put forward by his advisors. What should he do?
Do nothing
Surgical attack
Invasion
Diplomatic pressures
Blockade

39. Do nothing
PROS
The Americans knew that their nuclear power was much greater than the Soviet Union
The USA could still destroy the USSR, and the USSR knew this, meaning that the USSR would never use the missiles
The biggest danger to world peace would be to overreact to the discovery of the missiles on Cuba
CONS
The USSR had lied about the missiles in Cuba, and Kennedy had already issued a warning to the USSR
Doing nothing could be, and would be, interpreted as a sign of weakness by other countries

40. Attack from air

41. Surgical air attack PROS CONS
It would destroy the missiles on Cuba before they were ready to use
CONS
The destruction of all the sites could not be guaranteed, and if even only one site was left undamaged, the USSR would be able to launch a counterattack against the USA
The attack would kill Soviet soldiers, causing the Soviet Union to retaliate at once
The attack would be seen as immoral

42. All-out invasion by air and sea

43. Invasion
PROS
An all-out invasion of Cuba by both air and sea would get rid of both the missiles and Castro
The American forces were already trained and available to carry out the invasion
CONS
The USSR would either respond immediately to protect Cuba, or would respond within the Soviet sphere of influence, with a possible take-over of Berlin

44. United Nations meeting to discuss Cuba
Next

45. Diplomatic pressures PROS CONS
By getting the United Nations or other countries to intervene, or negotiate, it would avoid conflict
CONS
If the USA was forced to back down, it would be interpreted as a sign of weakness by other countries

46. American blockade

47. Blockade
PROS
Banning the Soviet Union from bringing in any further military supplies to Cuba by using the US navy to stop and search Soviet ships would show that the USA was serious, without using a direct act of war
Blockading the Soviet ships going to Cuba would put the burden on Khrushchev
If this option did not work out, even though the USA had a strong navy, they could still take other options
CONS
A blockade would not solve the main problem as the missiles were already on Cuba, and could be used within one week
The USSR may choose to retaliate by blockading Berlin, as it had already done so before in 1948

48. 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 spots sites installing nuclear missiles
October 15: Presence of missiles is confirmed

49. The Missiles: One Site

50. 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 and successfully changes course of many Soviet ships

51. 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?

52. Chronology, Continued
October 27: Soviets demand that Americans also withdraw missiles from Turkey; Major Anderson’s plane is missing over Cuba, presumably shot down; U.S. recon plane strays over Soviet airspace…high tensions
Kennedy tells Khrushchev that he will accept the proposal of the 26th, Kennedy tells his brother to tell the Soviet Ambassador that though the Turkey missiles would not be part of the bargain, they would be removed in time
October 28: USSR agrees to withdraw missiles

53. 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

54. Soviet Decisions, Continued
Inability to use the missiles
If fired a missile, repercussions would be severe

55. 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

56. The American Decision
In September Kennedy had stated and Congress had passed a resolution saying that if the Soviet Union placed offensive weapons in Cuba we would not tolerate it.
Could we then rely solely on diplomacy? Kennedys thought John could be “impeached” if he didn’t act in accordance with his prior warnings
Determined in first 48 hours of crisis that the removal of missiles was the primary objective
This objective effectively ruled out isolated diplomacy, and left two options…

57. 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 suggests policy in between diplomacy and an air strike

58. 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 they already had in Cuba
Douglas Dillon strengthened blockade argument by suggesting that it would only be a first step, that if Khrushchev did not remove the missiles to lift it, then more could be done
By Friday the 19th, the committee working on the blockade adapted it into a quarantine, on Sunday Kennedy accepted their plan as the course of action

59. 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 it to attack Castro are we sticking to our word?
Could we have tried diplomacy before resorting to the quarantine?
If we didn’t keep secrecy, Khrushchev could have proclaimed defiance, or denounced quarantine…then both countries would be in positions where they’re heading straight for each other and can’t just turn back

60. Castro’s Role No real role in decision making
Apparently out of touch with the situation
Oct. 26: “Aggression imminent/imperialists disregarding world opinion”—Clearly not the case
Khrushchev plays along to some extent but it is clear he disagrees with him (“your suggestion would have started a thermonuclear world war”)

61. Questions
Do you feel Major Anderson’s death justified more aggressive action?
Seeing as how our options in the crisis were somewhat dictated by the warnings we issued in September…should we have issued those warnings?
If the missiles in Cuba were conventional, and neither the Soviet Union nor the U.S. possessed any nuclear weapons, would the crisis have been avoided?

62. After the Crisis
The compromise reached satisfied no one, it was a particular embarrassment for Khrushchev and the Soviet Union who had not made public the withdrawal of the missiles in Turkey. .

63. U. S. military commanders were also not happy with the result
U.S. military commanders were also not happy with the result. General LeMay told the president that it was “the greatest defeat in our history” and that the U.S should invade immediately

64. Cuba felt they had been betrayed by the Soviets whom they had trusted, with all the decisions being made exclusively by Kennedy and Khrushchev.

65. The Cuban Missile Crisis spurred the creation of the Hot Line
The Cuban Missile Crisis spurred the creation of the Hot Line. This is a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington D.C. The purpose was to have a way leaders of the two Cold War countries could communicate directly to better solve a crisis like in October 1962.

66. FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Nuclear war was averted and Kennedy gained stature or respect as a world leader

67. “hot line” installed between Kremlin and White House
FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Result of crisis
“hot line” installed between Kremlin and White House

68. Fallout from the Crisis
When Khrushchev “blinked,” he lost great respect in the Soviet Union.
Kennedy, on the other hand, looked cool, calm, and collected. His legacy will be forever linked to this incident.
What this incident did do was improve communication between the two superpowers. A “hot line” phone connection was created between the two leaders.
A year later, the U.S. and Soviets signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which prohibited countries from testing nuclear bombs above ground. This would be the first nuclear agreement ever.

69. Blockade was chosen as solution
Kennedy addressed Nation

70. Brinkmanship
Ships stopped
“looks like someone blinked”

71. Russia and Khrushchev sent letter with terms that were agreeable to U
Russia and Khrushchev sent letter with terms that were agreeable to U. S.

72. Next day second letter with additional terms
FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Next day second letter with additional terms
U. S. missiles must be removed from Turkey

73. X-Com ignored the first letter
FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
X-Com ignored the first letter
Blockade and negotiations were successful

74. Promise not to invade Cuba Russia would take out missiles
FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Promise not to invade Cuba
Russia would take out missiles

75. FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Adali Stevenson and U.N. proved missiles were in Cuba over Russia’s denial

76. FIGHTING THE COLD WAR
Missiles were removed from Cuba U. S. agreed to remove missiles from Turkey 6 months later