CUBA'S MISSILE CRISIS 50TH ANNIVERSARY

HAVANA,  CUBA

This week is the 50^th anniversary of the Cuba Missile Crisis. During the 13 days Russia and American confronted each other with the threat of nuclear weapons. The world was never so close to be completely destroyed.

When eventually the stand-off ended with Russia withdraws its missile from Cuba everybody saw it, in the Western World, as a triumph for the USA. John F Kennedy was widely praised and acknowledged for his skills as a crisis manager and a great president.

The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was embarrassed having to climb down and he fell from power two years later.

Under the Freedom of Information Act the full picture was revealed. US Spy planes took photos on 16 October. They showed that the Russians installed 12 SS-5 and three SS-4 nuclear launch pad sites on Cuba. They were only 90 miles from the American coast.

Kennedy organised a special Executive Committee to offer him advice. There was his brother Bobby, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara and other top advisors as well as the CIA boss John McCone.

Nobody was aware that the meeting was taped but the Kennedys.

John F Kennedy and most of the other members preferred an air strike to destroy the missiles sites. They had to change their minds when the air force could not guarantee a full destruction of all sites.

Kennedy decided to set up a blockade around Cuba to prevent any more missiles getting there. Looking back today, it was international water and it could have turned into a declaration of war.

100.000 US troops and 500 air  crafts were ordered to move to Florida. The whole US armed force was on the highest alert while the whole world held its breath.

On 26 October Khrushchev sent Kennedy a letter asking for reassurance of the US not to invade Cuba which would then be unnecessary for the missiles on Cuba’s soil. This message broke the stalemate.

A second letter arrived the very next day requesting the US to “evacuate its analogues weapons in Turkey”. Turkey had 15 Jupiter ballistic missiles with US warheads under NATO control.  This increased the power of the Russians significantly.

To add to the tension U-2 spy plane pilot Major Rudolf Anderson jr was shot down over Cuba on 27 October. The Soviet forces stationed there acted without Khrushchev’s approval. If one of the two sides would have reacted the world would have been destroyed many times over. Both sides had enough nuclear weapons to do so.

27 October the key day of the crisis. At the United Nation the US ambassador Adlai Stevenson pointed out the second demand in the Khrushchev’s second letter had to be met. Turkey was reluctant to be drawn into the confrontation.

During all this time work on the missile launch pads carried on and the US had all their hands full to keep up the blockade avoiding a conflict at the same time.

On the 27 October, in the evening, Bobby Kennedy, US Attorney General had a private conversation with the Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. The contents of the conversation were that Bobby Kennedy threatened to invade Cuba and offered to remove the Jupiters within six months. Therefore he met the terms of the second letter. Soon after he also accepted the term of Khrushchev’s first letter.

At 9am next morning on the 29 October Washington was informed the Soviet Union accepted the terms. During the next few hours the Soviet forces dismantled the missiles launch pads at Cuba, US stopped the blockade and the high alert was stood down.

Robert Kennedy demanded one thing that the deal of Turkey was kept a secret and with that saved the pride of the US.

It was seen that Khrushchev gave in first but they achieved far more than it was known. Russia was not as powerful as people assumed. US gave an assurance that communism was safe in Cuba.

Cuba has still its communist regime and it outlived the Soviet Union.