Who were the key players during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
The Antagonist- Nikita Khrushchev.
How does he think? Watch the full video now.
The Embattled President- John F. Kennedy
How does he think? Watch the full video now.
The Wild Card- Fidel Castro
How does he think? Watch the full video now.
What happened and when?
1st January 1959- Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba
3rd January 1961- US terminates diplomatic relations with Cuba
17th-19th April 1961- Bay of Pigs Invasion.
USA and Kennedy publically humiliated on the world stage. Cuba moves closer to the USSR
3rd-4th June 1961- Vienna Summit.
Kennedy and Khrushchev meet for the first time in person. They discuss Laos, Vietnam and Cuba but their main focus is Berlin. Khrushchev announces to Kennedy that he will sign a peace treaty with the GDR in December that will hand over all control of roads and railways into Berlin. He effectively tells Kennedy that it is up to the US whether they is peace of war over Berlin. Kennedy refuses to back down but Khrushchev suspects he is bluffing. Although the US media claims victory for Kennedy, Kennedy admits privately that "[Khrushchev] beat the hell out of me." For Khrushchev, his meeting with Kennedy confirms his suspicions that his American counterpart is weak.
13th-27th August- Berlin Wall Crisis.
The crisis ends with a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie but war is averted. Kennedy is made to look even more weak by Khrushchev as he failed to prevent the building of the wall and West Berlin appears more vulnerable than ever.
May 1962- Khrushchev approves a plan to secretly build nuclear missile silos on Cuba.
These silos will eventually be able to contain short-range and intermediate-range missiles that could hit targets in much of the continental US and even Canada.
10th August 1962- CIA Director John McCone writes to Kennedy, outlining his suspicions that their is a nuclear weapons build-up on Cuba.
11th September 1962- In a speech at the UN, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko warns the US that an attack on Cuba will constitute war with the USSR.
14th October 1962- U-2 reconnaissance aircraft photograph the construction of Soviet missile bases on Cuba.
16th October 1962- President Kennedy is informed of this discovery and is shown the photographs.
This is the start of the 13 day period which represented the most dangerous part of the crisis. To avoid arousing suspicion, Kennedy maintains his official schedule and meets periodically with his advisors. His advisors form a group officially known as 'Ex-Comm" He is presented with two options:
1) Airstrike followed by invasion
2) Naval blockade (to be officially named a "quarantine zone" as naval blockade is officially an act of war), followed by threat of further action.
17th October 1962- Kennedy campaigns in Connecticut while Ex-Comm continues to meet on the crisis.
Former Secretary of State under Truman, Dean Acheson, is approached to provide private advise on this crisis and advocates missile strikes on Cuba. US Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the Head (General Maxwell Taylor) and Airforce Chief (General Curtis LeMay), advocate an airstrike followed by invasion. LeMay is particularly aggressive in his belief that war with the USSR is "inevitable" and argues that the blockade will only eventually appease the Soviets and will be a disaster similar to the Munich Conference in 1938. US ambassador to the UN, Adlai Stevenson, is one of the sole voices arguing for negotiation with the USSR.
18th October 1962- Kennedy keeps appointments with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko and Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Dobriynin.
Kennedy does not reveal that he is aware of the presence of Soviet missiles on Cuba but again repeats a previous warning about the consequences if there is found to be Soviet offensive weapons on Cuba. Gromyko assures Kennedy that any Soviet aid to Cuba is "purely defensive".
19th October 1962- Kennedy keeps his official schedule and campaigns for the Democratic party in Ohio and Illinois.
20th October 1962- Kennedy returns to Washington and decides upon enforcing a naval blockade.
Plans to put this into action are drawn up and White House Special Counsel Ted Sorenson begins work on a speech to inform the US public.
21st October 1962- General Taylor informs Kennedy that an airstrike could not guarantee destruction of all the Soviet missiles.
Kennedy continues with the blockade option. Kennedy warns that he does not want to the press to deny him the "element of surprise." Acheson is sent to Paris to brief French President Charles de Gaulle.
22nd October 1962- Kennedy informs the world of the presence of Soviet missiles on Cuba.
He briefs former Presidents Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower as well as UK Prime Minister Harold McMillan on the crisis. Kennedy writes a letter to Khrushchev informing him that he is aware of the presence of Soviet missiles on Cuba and the action is taking and will be prepared to take. In the evening, Kennedy goes on national television to break the news to the American public. Approximately one hour before the speech, Secretary of State Dean Rusk informs Ambassador Dobrynin of the contents of the announcement.
23rd October 1962- Naval blockade is put in place and Kennedy orders a low-flying reconnaissance mission over Cuba.
He receives a letter from Khrushchev who denounces the naval blockade as an act of war and in violation of international maritime laws. Khrushchev accepts that "there is a serious threat to the peace and security of peoples". Kennedy writes a letter to Khrushchev asking him to command Soviet ships to stop short of the "Quarantine Zone". In the meantime, Kennedy orders the blockade to retreat to 500 miles from Cuba in order to give the Soviet Union more time. The Organization of American States (OAS) unanimously approve the blockade and Stevenson lays the matter in front of the UN.
24th October 1962- Soviet ships with offensive weapons or questionable cargo either slow down or reverse with the exception of one ship.
The US Military raise the alert level to DEF CON 2. This is the highest ever alert level in US history and only the time this has happened (DEF CON 1= War). Khrushchev's response to Kennedy's letter from the day before reads:
"You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding oneself in one's relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us."
25th October 1962- Knowing that some of the missile silos are now operational, Kennedy drafts another letter to Khrushchev, demanding the removal of the missiles.
Ex-Comm discuss a proposal to remove obsolete Jupiter missiles in Turkey in exchange for the missiles in Cuba. Stevenson confronts Soviet UN Ambassador Zorin at the UN assembly in New York. The one Soviet ship that continued towards the blockade, the Bucharest, is inspected and found to only contain petroleum products. It is allowed to continue to Cuba.
26th October 1962- Castro writes a letter to Khrushchev telling him that Cubans are prepared to martyr themselves for the cause of world socialism.
Kennedy admits that the Quarantine will not resolve the crisis alone. KGB Washington Station Chief Aleksandr Fomin arranges a meeting with ABC Journalist John Scali. He makes an offer on behalf of the Soviet Union- promise to not invade Cuba in exchange for removal of the missiles. This offer is repeated in a long, rambling letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy that is received in the evening.
27th October 1962- Kennedy receives another letter from Khrushchev that changes the Soviet Union's demands- the US must also remove the Jupiter Missiles from Turkey.
Some members of Ex-Comm believe there may have been a hardline coup d'état against Khrushchev overnight and argue for a first strike against Cuba and the USSR. U-2 plane shot down over Cuba and Pilot is killed. During a test Ex-Comm meeting, Kennedy refuses to authorize military action and insists that the US missiles in Turkey will have to part of a deal. Robert Kennedy tells his brother to respond to the letter received last night and ignore the letter received this morning. Robert Kennedy is sent to meet with Ambassador Dobrynin to thrash out a deal. This deal is very similar to one proposed by Khrushchev in the letter received in the morning- The Soviet Union will remove the missiles in exchange for a US promise not to attach Cuba and that they remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The one amendment made to this deal by Kennedy is that the removal of US missiles from Turkey remain a secret. This allows him the opportunity (in the short-term at least), to claim a victory in the crisis, crucial to his hopes of being reelected in 1964.
28th October 1962- Khrushchev announces on Radio Moscow that he has reached agreement with the USA over the removal of the missiles from Cuba.
Aftermath
Hardline generals in Moscow perceived the results of the Cuban Missile Crisis to be a disastrous humiliation for the Soviet Union. Cuban-Soviet relations began to drift apart as Castro felt that Khrushchev had not shown the required courage to follow through on his threats. Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964 and replaced with a more hardline and predictable leader in Leonid Brezhnev.
The US public believed that Kennedy had 'won' the Cuban Missile Crisis, largely because the agreement concerning US missiles in Turkey was kept secret. Kennedy showed signs that he was preparing to stall a military build-up in Vietnam but was assassinated on 22nd November 1963. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, took the US into war in Vietnam in 1964.
Both leaders realized how close they had come to nuclear war in 1962 and formally recognized the principal of Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD. In 1963, both sides signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty and the Washington-Moscow 'Hot Line' was put in place to allow leaders of the USA and USSR to speak to each other directly in times of crisis.
Conclusions
1. Empathize with your enemy
Sergei Khrushchev on the Cuban Missile Crisis- The Soviet Perspective
2. Rationality will not save us
What about Castro? Was he mad?
3. The role of individuals in both creating and resolving a crisis
Khrushchev- Reckless gambler? He miscalculated and got the USA and the USSR into a very dangerous crisis. What could he have done to have prevented the crisis in the first place
Kennedy- Weak appeaser? Did Kennedy invite the crisis? Does he deserve credit for listening to certain advisors or do those individuals deserve credit for making themselves heard and for the manner in which they presented their arguments?
Castro- Madman? Rational Cuban nationalist?
LeMay- Warmonger? He was the inspiration for the 'hawkish' General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove
Stevenson- Coward or brave?
Robert Kennedy/Robert McNamara- Logical but loyal advisors to Kennedy
4. The role of historical perspective
What was your main objective when playing this game?
1) Was it to avoid war at all costs?
2) Was it to get the missiles removed/keep the missiles and protect Cuba at all costs?
3) Was it to secure a strategic victory?
The aims of both leaders was to secure a strategic victory. This meant keeping a balance between appearing to be prepared to go to war and trying to prevent one. While all-out war was clearly unacceptable, so was abject defeat. Both leaders needed to say to their people that they had gained something from what was essentially a high-stakes game of nuclear chicken. There were times when the crisis nearly slipped from their control, but ultimately nuclear weapons were just a bargaining chip that could be traded.
Further Resources
New York Times Article on the role of Castro during the Cuban Missile Crisis
New York Times article on the legacy of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Article on the crisis from the Guardian (UK newspaper) written by noted US academic Noam Chomsky
Article from the Guardian focusing the perspectives of Khrushchev and the USSR
Thirteen Days Movie from Youtube