The Cuban Missile Crisis

For thirteen days in October 1962, the world came closer to nuclear war than at any other point in its history. Soviet nuclear missiles were being installed ninety miles from the Florida coast; the United States imposed a naval blockade of Cuba; Soviet ships carrying warheads steamed towards the quarantine line. When the crisis ended on 28 October 1962, both sides had come so close to catastrophe that they changed the way they managed the Cold War — installing a direct telephone link between the Kremlin and the White House, and signing the first nuclear test ban treaty the following year.

This lesson covers the background to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the events of October 1962 day by day, and the immediate and longer-term consequences. It is one of the most likely topics for a Question 3 importance question in Edexcel Paper 2, and a rich source of material for a Question 1 consequences answer. A Grade 4/6/9 micro-contrast is included at the end of the Exam Tips section.

The Cuban Revolution and the Bay of Pigs

Cuba in the 1950s was ruled by the dictator Fulgencio Batista, closely allied with the United States. American companies controlled much of the Cuban economy, including sugar, telephones and casinos. Corruption and inequality were widespread.

In January 1959 the guerrilla army of Fidel Castro overthrew Batista. Castro's initial programme was nationalist rather than explicitly communist, but his land reforms and expropriation of American-owned businesses rapidly soured relations with Washington. In 1960 the US imposed a trade embargo; Castro turned to the USSR, which began buying Cuban sugar and supplying economic and military aid. By early 1961 Castro had publicly declared the revolution to be "socialist".

The CIA, operating under a plan begun under Eisenhower and approved by Kennedy, trained around 1,400 Cuban exiles in Guatemala for an invasion. On 17 April 1961 the exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) on Cuba's southern coast. The operation was a disaster. Castro's forces, expecting an invasion, crushed the landing within three days. Around 100 exiles were killed and 1,200 captured. Kennedy, to his credit publicly but to his political cost, took responsibility for the failure.

The Bay of Pigs had three major consequences:

• It humiliated Kennedy and made him look weak in his first year.
• It pushed Castro more firmly into the Soviet orbit. In December 1961 he formally declared himself a Marxist-Leninist.
• It convinced Khrushchev that Kennedy was inexperienced and might back down under pressure.

Operation Mongoose and Soviet missiles

After the Bay of Pigs the United States did not abandon its efforts to remove Castro. Operation Mongoose, authorised by Kennedy in November 1961, involved sabotage, propaganda and plots to assassinate Castro (some involving the Mafia). Castro had good reason to fear another US-backed invasion — this time with American troops.

Khrushchev's decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, taken in May 1962, had several motives:

• To deter a US invasion of Cuba.
• To redress the strategic imbalance: the US had around 200 ICBMs; the USSR had around 20. American missiles in Turkey (Jupiter IRBMs) could reach Moscow. Missiles in Cuba could reach Washington.
• To strengthen Khrushchev's position within the Kremlin and in his relations with China.

From July 1962 Soviet ships began carrying troops, equipment and missiles to Cuba. By October, 42 medium-range ballistic missiles (R-12) and launch sites for longer-range R-14 missiles were being installed, together with tactical nuclear weapons — unknown to the US.

Thirteen days in October 1962

Date (October 1962)	Event
14 Oct	A US U-2 overflight photographs missile sites under construction in Cuba
16 Oct	Photographs reach President Kennedy; ExComm begins to meet
18–21 Oct	ExComm debates options; military chiefs press for air strikes or invasion
22 Oct	Kennedy announces a naval "quarantine" of Cuba in a televised address
24 Oct	Blockade begins; several Soviet ships turn back before the line
26 Oct	First Khrushchev letter — offers missile withdrawal in exchange for US non-invasion pledge
27 Oct	"Black Saturday": U-2 shot down over Cuba; second Khrushchev letter adds demand for removal of US Jupiter missiles from Turkey
27 Oct	Robert Kennedy meets Soviet ambassador Dobrynin; "Trollope ploy" — US replies to first letter only
28 Oct	Khrushchev announces the missiles will be withdrawn

14–16 October: discovery

A U-2 reconnaissance flight on 14 October photographed what analysts identified as SS-4 medium-range ballistic missile sites being built near San Cristóbal. On 16 October the images reached President Kennedy. He convened a secret group of around a dozen advisers, the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm).

16–22 October: ExComm debates

ExComm considered a range of options:

• Do nothing — accept Soviet missiles in Cuba as a political fact.
• Use diplomacy alone — exchange US missiles in Turkey for Soviet missiles in Cuba.
• A "surgical" air strike to destroy the missile sites.
• A full-scale invasion of Cuba.
• A naval blockade to prevent further weapons arriving.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff pressed for air strikes or invasion. Kennedy was cautious: air strikes could never be guaranteed to destroy every missile, and an invasion could lead directly to war with the USSR. He settled on a naval "quarantine" — a blockade by another name, since an outright blockade would legally be an act of war.

22 October: the television address