CUBAN MISSILECRISIS

The Cuban Missile Crisis was an event that occurred during the U.S. and Russia cold war.

This event was a thirteen day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

This event occurred in October 1962.

During the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis the President of the United States was John F. Kennedy.

The Leader of the USSR (Soviet Union) was Nikita Khrushchev. (right)

His ally in this ordeal was Fidel Castro who had recently assumed power on January 1, 1959 as the new dictator of Cuba after the Cuban Revolution. (left)

BAY OF PIGSThe Bay of Pigs was an unsuccessful CIA action in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro from power.

The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after JFK got into office.

On October 14, 1962 a United States Air Force U-2 plane on a

photoreconnaissance mission took photographic evidence of Soviet

missile bases under construction in Cuba.

U2 Spy Plane

Maximum Speed: 475 mph Maximum Range: 7,000 miles Service Ceiling: 70,000 ft (13.25 miles)

U2 Aerial Surveillance Photo

After President Kennedy had found out about the building of Soviet missile bases his initial reaction was to call for a secret meeting with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem.

The meeting took place in October 22-29 of 1962.

This meeting became known as the EXCOMM meeting (Executive Committee of The National Security Council).

At the EXCOMM meeting President Kennedy and his advisors came up with six different solutions which included:

(1) Do nothing. The United States should ignore the missiles in Cuba. The United States had military bases in 127 different countries including Cuba. The United States also had nuclear missiles in several countries close to the Soviet Union. It was therefore only right that the Soviet Union should be allowed to place missiles in Cuba.

(2) Negotiate. The United States should offer the Soviet Union a deal. In return for the Soviet Union dismantling her missiles in Cuba, the United States would withdraw her nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy.

(3) Invasion. Send United States troops to Cuba to overthrow Castro's government. The missiles could then be put out of action and the Soviet Union could no longer use Cuba as a military base.

(4) Blockade of Cuba. Use the United States Navy to stop military equipment reaching Cuba from the Soviet Union.

(5) Bomb Missile Bases. Carry out conventional air-strikes against missiles and other military targets in Cuba.

(6) Nuclear Weapons. Use nuclear weapons against Cuba and/or the Soviet Union.

After long discussions President Kennedy as long as everyone else decided to go with a “quarantine” or a military blockade.

Below is link of President Kennedy speech which he gave on October 22, 1962 to the public which he discloses that U.S. spy planes discovered Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba.

http://www.history.com/topics/cuban-missile-crisis/audio#kennedy-discloses-missile-sites-in-cuba

The US announced that it would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the Soviets dismantle the missile bases already under construction or completed in Cuba and remove all offensive weapons.

The whole world waited anxiously for a response or act, they did not know how the Soviets or Cuba were going to react to their demands.

Kennedy told the air-force to prepare for attacks on Cuba and the Soviet Union. The army positioned 125,000 men in Florida and was told to wait for orders to invade Cuba. If the Soviet ships carrying weapons for Cuba did not turn back or refused to be searched, a war was likely to begin. Kennedy also promised his military advisers that if one of the U-2 spy planes were fired upon he would give orders for an attack on the Cuban SAM missile sites.

F.R.O.G.SThe Russian (Free Rocket Over Ground).

It is a single unguided, spin stabilized, solid fuel rocket.

On the Soviet side, Nikita Khrushchev responded in a letter to Kennedy saying that his blockade of “navigation in international waters and air space” “constituted an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war”.

On October 25, 1962 CIA director John McCone reported to EXCOMM that some of the Cuban missiles were now operational.

By the morning of October 26, Kennedy was convinced that only an invasion of Cuba could succeed in removing the missiles.

That afternoon the U.S. military was poised to conduct a land invasion, President Kennedy was told to expect heavy casualties.

In the case that the United States did invade Cuba, the Soviets had authorized missile launch.

The Soviets were ready to launch the missiles without permission from the rest of Russia.

At six that same evening, the State Department received a letter from Khrushchev proposing that the U.S. declare it would not invade Cuba in exchange for the Soviets dismantling the missiles.

Khrushchev sent another letter the next day demanding that the United States remove their nuclear bases in Turkey.

U-2 Reconnaissance plane

MAJOR ANDERSON

Rudolf Anderson was born September 15, 1927.

He was a pilot and officer in the United States Air Force and the first person to receive the Air Force Cross.

Anderson was killed when his U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuban airspace on October 27, 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Major Anderson was the only casualty as a result of enemy fire.

The leaders of the military, reminded Kennedy of the promise he had made, they argued that he should now give orders for the bombing of Cuba. Kennedy refused and instead sent a letter to Khrushchev accepting the terms of his first letters.

President Kennedy used back door channels to make a deal with the Soviets to remove their missile bases in Turkey.

President Kennedy meets with the head of the Air Force and U-2 pilots who discovered the missile bases.

Adlai Stevenson presenting to the UN

Khrushchev agreed and gave orders for the missiles to be dismantled.

Three months after the Cuban Missile Crisis the United States secretly removed all its nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy.

HERE GO SOME MORE PICTURES ON THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS