Cuban+Missile+Crisis+Reading


 * The Cuban Missile Crisis **

This text is adapted from Wikipedia: [] and the images are also from that article.


 * Overview **

The Cuban missile crisis was a thirteen-day confrontation between the [|Soviet Union]  and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other; the crisis occurred in October 1962, during the [|Cold War] . In August 1962, after some unsuccessful operations by the US to overthrow the Cuban regime, the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of [|medium-range]  and [|intermediate-range ballistic]  nuclear missiles with the ability to strike most of the [|continental United States] . This action followed the 1958 deployment of US missiles in the UK, Italy, and Turkey having the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14, 1962, a United States Air Force [|U-2]  plane on a <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|photoreconnaissance] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> mission captured photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the major confrontations of the Cold War, and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict or <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|WWIII] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. 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.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The confrontation ended peacefully on October 28, 1962, following a combination of public and secret agreements between leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. (In reality, the X-Men had nothing to do with the situation.)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Background **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Each of the following issues played a role in the development of the crisis:

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Monroe Doctrine - The Americans feared the Soviet expansion of Communism, but for a Latin American country to ally openly with the USSR was regarded as unacceptable, given the Soviet-American enmity since the end of World War II in 1945. Such an involvement would also directly defy the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Monroe Doctrine] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">; a United States policy which, while limiting the United States' involvement with European colonies and European affairs, held that European powers ought not have involvement with states in the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Western Hemisphere] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Weapons Race (Missiles) - When Kennedy ran for president in 1960, one of his key election issues was an alleged " <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|missile gap] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">", with the Soviets leading. In fact, the United States led the Soviets. In 1961, the Soviets had only four <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|intercontinental ballistic missiles] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (ICBMs). By October 1962, they may have had a few dozen, although some intelligence estimates were as high as 75. The United States, on the other hand, had 170 ICBMs and was quickly building more. It also had eight [|ballistic missile submarines] with the capability to launch 16 missiles each with a range of 1,400 miles (2,300 km). Khrushchev increased the perception of a missile gap when he loudly boasted to the world that the USSR was building missiles "like sausages" whose numbers and capabilities actually were nowhere close to his assertion. However, the Soviets did have <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|medium-range ballistic missiles] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> in quantity, about 700 of them.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Bay of Pigs - The United States had been embarrassed publicly by the failed <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Bay of Pigs Invasion] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> in April 1961, which had been launched under President <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|John F. Kennedy] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> by <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|CIA] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">-trained forces of <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Cuban exiles] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. Afterward, former President <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Eisenhower] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> told Kennedy that "the failure of the Bay of Pigs will embolden the Soviets to do something that they would otherwise not do." The half-hearted invasion left Soviet premier <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Nikita Khrushchev] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> and his advisers with the impression that Kennedy was indecisive and, as one Soviet adviser wrote, "too young, intellectual, not prepared well for decision making in crisis situations ... too intelligent and too weak."

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Berlin Wall – To stem the flow of defectors from the Soviet controlled section of Berlin to the section that was part of West Germany, the East German government constructed a wall that completely surrounded the West-German controlled section in August of 1961. The wall was a clear physical manifestation of the political reality that had played out in Germany following World War Two – a chasm separating the Soviet Union and the US-backed Western Europe.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Missiles in Europe - Due to early concerns over the build-up of Soviet missiles, [|US President] [|Dwight D. Eisenhower] met <span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> British <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[|Prime Minister] [|Harold Macmillan] in [|Bermuda] in 1956 to explore the possibility of short-term deployment on UK soil, until more powerful [|Intercontinental ballistic missiles] were deployed in the continental U.S. Beginning in 1959, 60 missiles were deployed at UK air force bases in Great Britain. In 1961, 30 missiles were deployed in Italy, followed by 15 missiles in Turkey. These missiles were positioned as a deterrent to nuclear attack on Europe, but had enough range to reach the capital of the Soviet Union at Moscow.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Operation Mongoose – In January 1962, General Edward Lansdale described plans to overthrow the Cuban Government in a top-secret report addressed to President Kennedy and officials involved with <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Operation Mongoose] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. CIA agents were to be infiltrated into <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Cuba] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> to carry out sabotage and organization, including radio broadcasts. In February 1962, the United States launched an <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|embargo against Cuba] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, and Lansdale presented a 26-page, top-secret timetable for implementation of the overthrow of the Cuban Government, mandating that guerrilla operations begin in August and September, and in the first two weeks of October to enable open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Soviet Missiles in Cuba **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was persuaded, in May 1962, of the idea of countering the United States' growing lead in developing and deploying strategic missiles by placing Soviet intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">All of the planning and preparation for transporting and deploying the missiles were carried out in the utmost secrecy. In early 1962, a group of Soviet military and missile construction specialists accompanied an agricultural delegation to Havana. They obtained a meeting with Cuban leader <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Fidel Castro] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. The Cuban leadership had a strong expectation that the US would invade Cuba again and they enthusiastically approved the idea of installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. Like Castro, Khrushchev felt that a US invasion of Cuba was imminent, and that to lose Cuba would do great harm to the communist cause, especially in Latin America. He said he wanted to confront the Americans "with more than words... the logical answer was missiles". On September 11, the Soviet Union publicly warned that a US attack on Cuba or on Soviet ships carrying supplies to the island would mean war.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As early as August 1962, the United States suspected the Soviets of building missile facilities in Cuba. During that month, its intelligence services gathered information about sightings by ground observers of Russian-built fighters and light bombers. <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|U-2] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> spyplanes found surface-to-air missile sites at eight different locations. On August 10, CIA Director, John McCone, wrote a memo to President Kennedy in which he guessed that the Soviets were preparing to introduce ballistic missiles into Cuba. On August 31, Senator <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Kenneth Keating] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (R-New York), who probably received his information from Cuban exiles in Florida, warned on the Senate floor that the Soviet Union may be constructing a missile base in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The first consignment of missiles arrived on the night of September 8, followed by a second on September 16. On October 7, Cuban President <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Osvaldo Dorticós] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> spoke at the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|UN General Assembly] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: "If ... we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. I repeat, we have sufficient means with which to defend ourselves; we have indeed our inevitable weapons, the weapons, which we would have preferred not to acquire, and which we do not wish to employ."

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Reports from Cuba described large trucks passing through towns at night carrying very long canvas-covered cylindrical objects that could not make turns through towns without backing up and maneuvering. Defensive missiles could make these turns. The missiles in Cuba allowed the Soviets to effectively target almost the entire continental United States.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the end of September, Navy reconnaissance aircraft photographed the Soviet ship //Kasimov// with large crates on its deck the size and shape of light bombers. The US first obtained photographic evidence of the missiles on October 14 when a <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|U-2] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> flight piloted by Major <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Richard Heyser] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> took 928 pictures, capturing images of what turned out to be a construction site at <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|San Cristóbal] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Pinar del Río Province] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, in western Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 15, the CIA's National Photographic Intelligence Center reviewed the U-2 photographs and identified objects that they interpreted as medium range ballistic missiles. That evening, the CIA notified the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Department of State] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> and <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Secretary of Defense] [|Robert McNamara] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> was briefed at midnight. The next morning President Kennedy was shown the U-2 photographs and was briefed on the CIA's analysis of the images.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Responses Considered **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The US had no plan in place because US intelligence had been convinced that the Soviets would never install nuclear missiles in Cuba. The group of advisors that President Kennedy assembled quickly discussed several possible courses of action, including:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Diplomacy: Use diplomatic pressure to get the Soviet Union to remove the missiles.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Warning: Send a message to Castro to warn him of the grave danger he, and Cuba were in.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Blockade: Use the US Navy to block any missiles from arriving in Cuba.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Air strike: Use the US Air Force to attack all known missile sites.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Invasion: Full force invasion of Cuba and overthrow of Castro.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Joint Chiefs of Staff] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> unanimously agreed that a full-scale attack and invasion was the only solution. They believed that the Soviets would not attempt to stop the US from conquering Cuba. Kennedy was skeptical. He concluded that attacking Cuba by air would signal the Soviets to presume "a clear line" to conquer Berlin. Kennedy also believed that United States' allies would think of the US as "trigger-happy cowboys" who lost Berlin because they could not peacefully resolve the Cuban situation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The advisory agreed that the missiles would affect the //political// balance. First, Kennedy had explicitly promised the American people less than a month before the crisis that "if Cuba should possess a capacity to carry out offensive actions against the United States...the United States would act." Second, US credibility among their allies, and among the American people, would be damaged if they allowed the Soviet Union to //appear// to redress the strategic balance by placing missiles in Cuba.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 18, President Kennedy met with Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Andrei Gromyko] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, who claimed the weapons were for defensive purposes only. Not wanting to expose what he already knew, and wanting to avoid panicking the American public, the President did not reveal that he was already aware of the missile build-up.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Two Operational Plans were considered. Plan 316 envisioned a full invasion of Cuba by Army and Marine units supported by the Navy following Air Force and naval airstrikes. However, Army units in the United States would have had trouble fielding mechanized and logistical assets, while the US Navy could not supply sufficient amphibious shipping to transport even a modest armored contingent from the Army. Plan 312, primarily an Air Force and Navy carrier operation, was designed with enough flexibility to do anything from engaging individual missile sites to providing air support for Plan 316's ground forces.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">By October 19, frequent U-2 spy flights showed four operational sites. The President’s advisory committee shifted support for a blockade option. Secretary of Defense McNamara supported the naval <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|blockade] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> as a strong but limited military action that left the US in control. According to <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|international law] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> a blockade is an <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|act of war] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, but the Kennedy administration did not think that the Soviet Union would be provoked to attack by a mere blockade.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Organization of American States was approached and, employing the Rio Treaty, several Latin American countries agreed to furnish a few ships, a few airplanes, some Marines, and a submarine to support a quarantine against offensive weapons being brought into the Western Hemisphere.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As part of a blockade strategy, the US military was put on high alert to enforce the blockade and to be ready to invade Cuba at a moment's notice. The <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|1st Armored Division] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> was sent to <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Georgia] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, and five army <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|divisions] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> were alerted for maximal action. The <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Strategic Air Command] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (SAC) distributed its shorter-ranged bombers to civilian airports and sent aloft its [|heavy bombers].

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 22, President Kennedy met with Congressional leaders who contentiously opposed a blockade and demanded a stronger response. In Moscow, Ambassador <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Kohler] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> briefed Chairman Khrushchev on the pending blockade and Kennedy's speech to the nation. Ambassadors around the world gave advance notice to non- <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Eastern Bloc] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> leaders. Before the speech, US delegations met with political leaders of US allies, including Canada, Britain, West Germany, and France, to brief them on the US intelligence and their proposed response. All were supportive of the US position.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 22 at 7:00 pm EDT, President Kennedy delivered a nation-wide televised address on all of the major networks announcing the discovery of the missiles. Audio from that address is available at []


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Tension Increases **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Three days after Kennedy's speech, the Chinese [|//People's Daily//]<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> announced that 650,000,000 Chinese men and women were standing by the Cuban people. In West Germany, newspapers supported the United States' response, contrasting it with the weak American actions in the region during the preceding months. They also expressed some fear that the Soviets might retaliate in Berlin. In France on October 23, the crisis made the front page of all the daily newspapers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On the evening of October 24, the Soviet news agency, TASS, broadcast a telegram from Khrushchev to President Kennedy, in which Khrushchev warned that the United States' "pirate action" would lead to war. However, this was followed at 9:24 pm by a telegram from Khrushchev to Kennedy which was received at 10:52 pm, in which Khrushchev stated, "If you coolly weigh the situation which has developed, not giving way to passions, you will understand that the Soviet Union cannot fail to reject the arbitrary demands of the United States" and that the Soviet Union views the blockade as "an act of aggression" and their ships will be instructed to ignore it. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The United States requested an emergency meeting of the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|United Nations Security Council] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> on October 25. US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Valerian Zorin] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> in an emergency meeting of the SC challenging him to admit the existence of the missiles. Ambassador Zorin refused to answer.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 25 at 1:45 am, Kennedy responded to Khrushchev's telegram, stating that the US was forced into action after receiving repeated assurances that no offensive missiles were being placed in Cuba, and that when these assurances proved to be false, the deployment "required the responses I have announced... I hope that your government will take necessary action to permit a restoration of the earlier situation."

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The next day at 10:00 pm, the US raised the readiness level of SAC forces to DEFCON 2. For the only confirmed time in US history, the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|B-52] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> bombers were dispersed to various locations and made ready to take off, fully equipped, on 15 minutes' notice. One-eighth of SAC's 1,436 bombers were on airborne alert, some 145 intercontinental ballistic missiles stood on ready alert, while <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Air Defense Command] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> redeployed 161 nuclear-armed interceptors to 16 dispersal fields. Twenty-three nuclear-armed B-52 were sent to orbit points within striking distance of the Soviet Union so that the latter might observe that the U.S. was serious.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Blockade is Challenged **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At 7:15 am on October 25, the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|USS //Essex//] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> and <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|USS //Gearing//] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> attempted to intercept the //Bucharest// but failed to do so. Fairly certain the tanker did not contain any military material, they allowed it through the blockade. Later that day, at 5:43 pm, the commander of the blockade effort ordered the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|USS //Kennedy//] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> to intercept and board the Lebanese freighter //Marucla//. This took place the next day, and the //Marucla// was cleared through the blockade after its cargo was checked.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At 5:00 pm on October 25, William Clements announced that the missiles in Cuba were still actively being worked on. This report was later verified by a CIA report that suggested there had been no slow-down at all. However, during the day, the Soviets had responded to the blockade by turning back 14 ships presumably carrying offensive weapons.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The next morning, October 26, Kennedy informed the advisory committee that he believed only an invasion would remove the missiles from Cuba. However, he was persuaded to give the matter time and continue with both military and diplomatic pressure. He agreed and ordered the low-level flights over the island to be increased from two per day to once every two hours. He also ordered a crash program to institute a new civil government in Cuba if an invasion went ahead.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At this point, the crisis was ostensibly at a stalemate. The USSR had shown no indication that they would back down and had made several comments to the contrary. The US had no reason to believe otherwise and was in the early stages of preparing for an invasion, along with a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union in case it responded militarily, which was assumed.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Secret Negotiations **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> On October 26, <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|John A. Scali] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> of <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|ABC News] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> had lunch with Russian spy, Aleksandr Fomin, at Fomin's request. Fomin noted, "War seems about to break out" and asked Scali to use his contacts to talk to his "high-level friends" at the State Department to see if the US would be interested in a diplomatic solution. He suggested that the language of the deal would contain an assurance from the Soviet Union to remove the weapons under UN supervision and that Castro would publicly announce that he would not accept such weapons in the future, in exchange for a public statement by the US that it would never invade Cuba. [|[48]]<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The US responded by asking the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Brazilian] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> government to pass a message to Castro that the US would be "unlikely to invade" if the missiles were removed.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">On October 26 at 6:00 pm, the State Department started receiving a message that appeared to be written personally by Khrushchev. The long letter took several minutes to arrive, and it took translators additional time to translate and transcribe it. Robert Kennedy described the letter as "very long and emotional". Khrushchev reiterated the basic outline that had been stated to John Scali earlier in the day, "I propose: we, for our part, will declare that our ships bound for Cuba are not carrying any armaments. You will declare that the United States will not invade Cuba with its troops and will not support any other forces which might intend to invade Cuba. Then the necessity of the presence of our military specialists in Cuba will disappear." News of Fomin's offer to Scali was afterward heard and was interpreted as a "set up" for the arrival of Khrushchev's letter. The letter was then considered official and accurate, although it was later learned that Fomin was almost certainly operating of his own accord without official backing.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Castro, on the other hand, was convinced that an invasion of Cuba was soon at hand, and on October 26, he sent a telegram to <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Khrushchev] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> that appeared to call for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the USA. Castro also ordered all anti-aircraft weapons in Cuba to fire on any US aircraft.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the morning of October 27, the CIA delivered a memo reporting that three of the four missile sites at San Cristobal and the two sites at Sagua la Grande appeared to be fully operational. They also noted that the Cuban military continued to organize for action, although they were under order not to initiate action unless attacked. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Later that morning, <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Radio Moscow] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> began broadcasting a message from Khrushchev. Contrary to the letter of the night before, the message offered a new trade, that the missiles on Cuba would be removed in exchange for the removal of the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Jupiter] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> missiles from Italy and Turkey. About 11 that morning, a new message arrived from Khrushchev with the same offer. Throughout the crisis, Turkey had repeatedly stated that it would be upset if the missiles were removed, but Italy seemed willing to accept that solution to the crisis. Unknown to the Soviets, the U.S regarded the positioned missiles as obsolete and already supplanted by the Polaris nuclear ballistic submarine missiles.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">About noon on October 27, a reconnaissance plane piloted by USAF Major <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Rudolf Anderson] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, was struck by a defensive missile launched from Cuba. The aircraft was shot down and Anderson was killed. The stress in negotiations between the USSR and the US intensified, and only much later was it learned that the decision to fire the missile was made locally by an undetermined Soviet commander acting on his own authority. Later that day, at about 3 PM, several US Navy aircraft on low level photoreconnaissance missions were fired upon, and one was hit by a 37mm shell, but managed to return to base.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The US decided to ignore the second offer from Khrushchev and accept the first one – the US would agree to not invade Cuba and the Soviets would pull their missiles out. This was written in a letter and sent. Then, in an oral message to the Soviet Ambassador, the US indicated that they would be “voluntarily” removing missiles in Europe after the crisis ended.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With the letter delivered, a deal was on the table. However, there was little expectation it would be accepted. At 9:00 pm, the advisory committee met again to review the actions for the following day. Plans were drawn up for air strikes on the missile sites as well as other economic targets, notably petroleum storage. McNamara stated that they had to "have two things ready: a government for Cuba, because we're going to need one; and secondly, plans for how to respond to the Soviet Union in Europe, because sure as hell they're going to do something there".


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Crisis Resolved **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In the morning of October 28, a new message from Khrushchev was broadcast on Radio Moscow. Khrushchev stated that, "the Soviet government, in addition to previously issued instructions on the cessation of further work at the building sites for the weapons, has issued a new order on the dismantling of the weapons which you describe as 'offensive' and their crating and return to the Soviet Union."

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kennedy immediately responded, issuing a statement calling the letter "an important and constructive contribution to peace". He continued this with a formal letter: "I consider my letter to you of October twenty-seventh and your reply of today as firm undertakings on the part of both our governments which should be promptly carried out... The US will make a statement in the framework of the Security Council in reference to Cuba as follows: it will declare that the United States of America will respect the inviolability of Cuban borders, its sovereignty, that it take the pledge not to interfere in internal affairs, not to intrude themselves and not to permit our territory to be used as a bridgehead for the invasion of Cuba, and will restrain those who would plan to carry an aggression against Cuba, either from US territory or from the territory of other countries neighboring to Cuba."

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The U.S continued the blockade, and in the following days, aerial reconnaissance proved that the Soviets were making progress in removing the missile systems. The 42 missiles and their support equipment were loaded onto eight Soviet ships. The ships left Cuba from November 5–9. The US made a final visual check as each of the ships passed the blockade line. The US Government announced the end of the blockade effective on November 20, 1962.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In his negotiations with the Soviet Ambassador <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Anatoly Dobrynin] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, US Attorney General <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Robert Kennedy] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> informally proposed that the missiles in <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Turkey] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> would be removed within a short time after this crisis was over. The last US missiles were disassembled by April 24, 1963, and were flown out of Turkey soon after.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Aftermath **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The practical effect of this Kennedy-Khrushchev Pact was that it effectively strengthened Castro's position in Cuba, guaranteeing that the US would not invade Cuba. The perception was that Kennedy had won the contest between the superpowers and Khrushchev had been humiliated. This is not entirely the case as both Kennedy and Khrushchev took every step to avoid full conflict despite the pressures of their governments. The compromise was a particularly sharp embarrassment for Khrushchev and the Soviet Union because the withdrawal of US missiles from Italy and Turkey was not made public at that time—it was a secret deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The Soviets were seen as retreating from circumstances that they had started—though if played well, it could have looked just the opposite. Khrushchev's fall from power two years later can be partially linked to internal political embarrassment at both Khrushchev's eventual concessions to the US and his ineptitude in precipitating the crisis in the first place.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Cuban missile crisis also spurred the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Hotline Agreement] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, which created the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration: none;">[|Moscow–Washington hotline] <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, a direct communications link between Moscow and Washington, D.C. The purpose was to have a way that the leaders of the two Cold War countries could communicate directly to solve such a crisis.