The Cuban Missile Crisis was a series of events from October 16 to October 28, 1962, which pitted the United States against the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles aimed at United States territory from the island of Cuba, which brought the two blocs to the brink of nuclear war.
A paroxysmal moment of the Cold War, the Cuban crisis underlined the limits of peaceful coexistence, and resulted in a withdrawal of the USSR in exchange for a public concession and two confidential promises granted by the Kennedy administration. Seemingly minor at the time, they were considered in the West in the following decades as very constraining for the foreign policy of the United States. A “red telephone” directly linking the White House to the Kremlin was installed after the crisis in order to be able to establish direct communication between the executive of the two superpowers and to prevent a new crisis of this kind from leading to a diplomatic deadlock. The resolution of this crisis paved the way for a new period of the Cold War, Détente.
Precursor events of the crisis
During the 1950s, the United States had a great influence on the politics of the Republic of Cuba, which became independent from Spain in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War. On December 31, 1958, Fulgencio Batista fled to the United States. Fidel Castro supported by Che Guevara comes to power at the head of a guerrilla supported by the majority of the Cuban people. He was then recognized by the United States government in January 1959. He undertook land reform on May 17, 1959. American reprisals, in particular at the instigation and under pressure from the United Fruit Co (a banana company which is one of nationalized companies on the island), begin five months after the agrarian reform:on October 21, a counter-revolutionary twin-engine aircraft machine-guns Havana, causing two deaths and around fifty injuries, while another plane drops propaganda. In June and July 1960, in retaliation for a refusal to refine Soviet oil by American companies (the USSR having established diplomatic and commercial relations with Cuba in February 1960), Fidel Castro nationalized American companies in Cuba.
These reprisals were followed, on April 17, 1961, by the Bay of Pigs landings:1,400 men, supported by an air force, attempted to overthrow Castro. They are mostly Cuban exiles trained by the CIA in a camp in Guatemala, as part of an operation financed by the Eisenhower administration after the President's agreement given the previous year (March 17, 1960). Various cities are bombarded, but the Castro forces come to the end of this invasion. Very few fighters were killed. The others, defined by Fidel Castro as gusanos (“vermin”), are taken prisoner to be able to exchange their freedom for a ransom in dollars and medicine.
J.F. Kennedy, who succeeded D. Eisenhower on January 20, 1961, declares that he assumes full responsibility for this action, however prepared by his predecessor. In November 1961, the United States deployed 15 Jupiter missiles in Turkey and 30 others in Italy, which were capable of reaching Soviet territory. Also begins, on February 7, 1962, the United States embargo against Cuba.
Beginning of the crisis
Soviet operations Anadyr and Kamas
In May 1962, Nikita Khrushchev launched Operation Anadyr:he sent 50,000 soldiers, thirty-six SS-4 and two SS-5 nuclear missiles as well as four submarines to Cuba to prevent the United States from invading island. Contrary to what has long been maintained (notably by Michel Tatu), the resolution of the crisis created by the construction of the Berlin Wall by the Communists played no role in the motivations of the Head of State of the USSR. In any case, the problem never appears in the Soviet archives.[
American services were monitoring Russian maritime traffic en route to Cuba, some documents report movements of raw materials from Africa and other continents. The tonnages reported month by month showed an increasing increase. The analysis that is then made underlies the anticipation of systemic risks linked to the crisis, in particular by prefiguring the consequences of a blockade.
This island, which has become an ally of the Soviet Union and considered by the Americans as an enemy, is partially dominated by the United States army which has a base in Guantánamo. However, Cuba is less than 200 km from Florida, which makes the territory of the United States vulnerable to its missiles, which cannot be detected sufficiently in advance to guarantee the immediate response required by the policy of deterrence. On the other side, American maritime military maneuvers were in preparation for the fall of 1962 intended to overthrow “a tyrant named Ortsac” (transparent anagram). They will be transformed after the discovery of the Soviet missiles into a blockade device.
On July 24, 19625 a wiretap report indicated an abnormal presence of four, possibly five Russian passenger ships en route to Cuba (with 3,335 passengers on board), with an estimated date of arrival July 26, 28 and August 1, (Maria Ulyanova, Khabarovsk, Mikhaïl Ouriskij, Latviyia, Admiral Nakhimov).
Since August 31, 1962, when Cuban air force communications personnel were placed on high alert, an increase in MIG flight activity has been evident from air-to-ground communications. Between September 1 and September 4, 1962, 76 pilot callsigns were carried over. On September 4, a total of 43 pilot callsigns were noted active between 10:22 a.m. and 4:59 p.m. Z (05:22-11:59 a.m. local time). Of these, 36 were active in contact with the ground controller in San Antonio de los Banos. The activity consisted of bombing and possibly patrol flights. During the same period, sevenl additional MIG pilot callsigns were noted active with Camaguey ground control. No flight activity was noted at Santa Clara, although ground controllers were active in communications.
On October 2, 1962, Operation Kama began:four Soviet Navy Foxtrot-class diesel-electric attack submarines sailed from the Kola Peninsula, with nuclear torpedoes on board (their use could have started a nuclear war at the initiative of the USSR; the nuclear nature of these torpedoes was only revealed in 2001). Commanders Shumkov, Ketov, Savisky and Doubivko had the mission to join the convoy of Soviet cargo ships heading for Cuba, with on board the nuclear missiles intended to complete the system already in place on the island. Their mission was to protect the convoy, if necessary at the cost of torpedoing ships that tried to intervene.
John McCone, Director of the CIA, informs the National Security Council that, given the bad weather conditions, shooting by U-2 reconnaissance planes is impossible. On October 13, the Soviet submarines crossed the "Azores-Newfoundland barrier", after suffering a storm on October 9 that had caused damage on board.
The discovery of the launch pads and the blockade
On October 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane piloted by Commander Rudolf Anderson Jr. photographed the missile installation sites. The next day, the films are read to the United States that the USSR is planting nuclear-tipped SS-4 missiles in Cuba. Soviet launch pads, missiles, bombers, rockets and advisers are spotted in Cuba. Also identified are 26 Soviet ships carrying nuclear warheads (operational in 10 days) en route to the island.
On October 16, President Kennedy convenes the National Security Council, advocating direct military action. Robert McNamara proposes a maritime blockade of the island until the withdrawal of missiles from Cuba. This is a blockade aimed only at the supply of offensive weapons.
On October 22, as Commander Anderson Jr. realizes that setting up the maritime blockade will take about 149 hours, and GRU Colonel Oleg Penkovsky is arrested for giving MI-6 the information that the USSR actually had very few strategic nuclear missiles and that their reliability was questionable, McCone informed the President of the United States of the presence of four Soviet submarines. During a televised address, President Kennedy announced to the country the content of the information revealed by the U2 plane, asked Khrushchev to halt the operations in progress, threatened the USSR with reprisals if it did not withdraw its missiles and decided of naval blockade measures on Cuba. The next day, he signs the execution order for the blockade.
The Soviet submarines reach the blockade line at the same time as the ships of the United States fleet. Moscow cannot be informed of this because of the saturation of communication networks. The connection finally restored, the commanders of the submarines received the order from Moscow to continue their journey. Kennedy obtained the promise that France, the United Kingdom and the other NATO member states would support him in the event of war against the USSR. Canada is a bit late due to animosity between Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Kennedy, but Canada's Minister of Defense puts sea, air and land forces on high alert without notifying the Prime Minister.
On October 24, at 10 a.m., the blockade is in place. Thirty Soviet freighters are on their way. Among them, four have nuclear missiles in their holds. Two arrive on the blockade line:the Khemov and the Gagarin. At 10:25 a.m., the freighters stop. Khrushchev considers it unnecessary to break the blockade. The missiles already in place in Cuba are sufficient.
On October 25, twelve freighters turned back. The others continue on their way. The US Navy misses intercepting the Bucharest and gives up pursuing it because it was certain that it was not carrying military equipment.
On October 26, Khrushchev informed Kennedy, through an American businessman who had returned to the United States following a trip to Moscow, that he would continue his action:"If the United States want war, then we will end up in hell. »
One of the Soviet submarines is detected by sonar by the Americans. The hunt is on.
A CIA memo mentions a notable reduction in the processing time of interceptions of Cuban communications by automation9.
On October 27, Commander Anderson Jr.'s U2 was shot down. Khrushchev had not given this order. He didn't want to make the first move. But the National Security Council analyzes this action as an escalation. Kennedy gives the order in case of new aggression to bomb the missile sites.
On October 27, Khrushchev lets it be known by letter that he is ready to negotiate.
On the morning of October 28, a second letter from Khrushchev, written by the Politburo, suggests that no negotiations can take place. The same day, the CIA announces that 24 Russian missiles are now operational and aimed at specific points on American soil.
Khrushchev announces on Radio Moscow that he is giving the order to dismantle the missile sites. The hunt for submarines is in full swing. Two of them surface, batteries flat, to recharge them. They make the American ships understand not to provoke them. The Dubivko, during a manoeuvre, had its antenna mast ripped off by one of its pursuers. He takes this action as a deliberate maneuver. The Shoumkov is still diving. Three practice grenades are thrown by his pursuer to order him to surface. He chooses to dive by casting a lure. The sound of the latter is taken for a torpedo launch, then its escape maneuver is fanned. At the end of its oxygen reserves, the Shoumkov surfaces in the middle of four destroyers of the US Navy. Reporting on the situation in Moscow, he was ordered to be in a position to react. A nuclear torpedo is inserted into torpedo tube number 1.
On October 29, the USSR retreated and had its ships withdrawn. She also promises to remove all her facilities. The compromise necessary for the negotiation is that the United States undertake not to attack Cuba - which allows the USSR to save face - and to dismantle their 15 PGM-19 Jupiter rockets installed in Turkey (and therefore aimed to the Eastern bloc). This agreement was notably obtained via the brand new ambassador in Washington, Anatoli Dobrynin, who remained in office until 1986.
On November 1, three of the four submarines are detected. The Ketov is still nowhere to be found. The submarines are taken back to the high seas. On November 7, Khrushchev accepts that the cargo ships be inspected by the US Navy. War is narrowly avoided. It will only be known in 2001 that Soviet submarines were armed with nuclear-tipped torpedoes.
End of the crisis
Pope John XXIII's call for peace, broadcast on the front page of Pravda on October 26, played a key role in organizing negotiations between Khrushchev and Kennedy, who was also a Catholic himself
The USSR ambassador in Washington, Anatoli Dobrynine, then played an important role in resolving the crisis:he activated all his informal networks formed since his arrival a few months earlier; he thus allows the president of the KGB to meet an FBI informant, whom he already knew, and who was in direct contact with Robert Kennedy to pass on informal messages which would make it possible to resolve the crisis. It was thus agreed to withdraw the Soviet missiles from Cuba, against the withdrawal, after a few months, of the American Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy which had to be withdrawn anyway due to obsolescence. On the other hand, it is agreed between the parties that the link between the two withdrawals should remain secret. The “Robert Kennedy-Anatole Dobrynin Agreement” was revealed for information only by Robert Kennedy in 1968, and its characteristics were detailed by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 1978.
The withdrawal of the missiles was decided by Khrushchev on October 26 after written commitment of non-invasion of Cuba by President Kennedy. This non-commitment clause is seen today as a very important point in the negotiations:it would have accelerated the way out of the crisis by allowing the Soviets to avoid humiliation.
The Soviets withdraw their missiles from Cuba and the United States the Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy. However, the USSR was not earning as much as it might believe or lead to believe because the withdrawal of the Jupiters had been decided by Kennedy in 1961 following the commissioning of the first much less vulnerable ICBMs and SSBNs. The Jupiters were withdrawn from service in 1963. However, the USSR retained its influence over Cuba, which remained communist and avoided further attempts by the Americans to overthrow the government.
The two governments decide to set up the "red telephone" to have a direct line of communication.
Assessment of the crisis
The withdrawal of armaments from Cuba was widely held to be a personal success of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
The Cuban crisis was considered in the West as a serious setback for Khrushchev, which caused the USSR to lose credit in the Third World. The Chinese called the USSR "adventurists" and "capitulationists". Within the USSR, Khrushchev's loss of credit may, according to most studies, have contributed to his overthrow, two years later in October 1964.
The USSR, however, obtained the assurance that the United States would no longer attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro by force and symbolically, because the withdrawal of all the Jupiter missiles had been decided before the beginning of the crisis, by the removal of ballistic missile bases in Turkey. But it is sometimes objected that for the sake of consistency, the Americans granted quantitatively more than what Moscow had asked of them on October 26:the public withdrawal under United Nations control of the missiles from Turkey and Cuba, subject to a reciprocal promise of the two large ones not to invade their neighbor (and after authorization from third countries). Through Robert Kennedy, the United States had to commit to withdrawing other “obsolete” rockets:the Jupiters from Italy; this promise was fulfilled in April 1963. The fact is that the missiles from Turkey and Italy will be withdrawn at the same time in April 1963.
A little later, the Americans dismantled the 60 Thors entrusted to Bomber Command in Great Britain, also obsolete with the commissioning of the Polaris missiles on board the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine based at Holy Loch from 1961 and in June 1963, Kennedy declared that no intermediate-range missile would be installed in the FRG as requested by the latter17. Therefore, according to Gabriel Robin, it will take a new and very long crisis (the Euromissile crisis between 1979 and 1983) to reinstall them in Western Europe. It is no longer certain that Kennedy expressed the intention of withdrawing these missiles from Turkey in August 1962:he only mentioned the possibility20. Sending Sputnik in 1957 demonstrated the USSR's ability to build intercontinental missiles. These missiles were perhaps no less obsolete than the medium-range Soviet rockets in Cuba, the equivalent of which the USSR had had for some years on its own territory:long-range missiles also capable of reaching the States States.
The Cuban crisis is the climax of the Cold War. The (highly publicized) concession of Khrushchev and that (discreet and symbolic) of Kennedy started the movement of detente. Detente lasts from 1962 until 1975.
For Jean-Daniel Piquet, taking the Cuban question into account would make it possible to further qualify the idea of Kennedy's victory and Khrushchev's failure, which would have contributed to his downfall in October 1964. Many works on the Kennedy's assassination underline the path of Cuban and American anti-Castroists, dissatisfied with the promise of the President of the United States not to invade the island22 and convinced that his replacement by Lyndon Johnson of Southern origin would facilitate the rupture of the agreement. It will nevertheless have taken two years during which Fidel Castro went twice to the USSR (June 1963 and January 1964), thus seeming to forget his past grievances, for Khrushchev to be ousted. It was on the occasion of a third trip to the summit made here by the President of the Cuban Republic Osvaldo Dorticos, on October 14, 1964. It was feared in Moscow that this meeting would complicate the plan to overthrow the Soviet no. even explained above all by reasons of internal politics and aggressive behavior towards colleagues.
In fact, too, a meticulous examination by Gabriel Robin of the Kremlin power struggles shows Khrushchev in growing trouble from December 1962 to April 1963, followed by a miraculous recovery that coincided with the double withdrawal of missiles from Turkey and Italy. and the first concrete, serious measures to prohibit the aggressions of former anti-Castro refugees against Cuba. These had been in a growing phase since December 1962.
Moreover, over time, Cuba's rise in international relations, in Africa and especially in Central America, will put into perspective the apparent humiliation inflicted by Kennedy on Khrushchev and will lead certain American political forces to consider questioning the agreement. of 1962 which made them "accept the unacceptable". This was one of the campaign themes in 1980 of the Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan. In October and November 1981, a new crisis almost erupted after the announcement by the American press of plans for the aerial bombardment of Cuba caused by the desire to go to the source of the Central American crises (supposed shipment of arms to El Salvador guerrillas). Pravda of November 9, 1981 mentions "the extremely dangerous consequences for world peace which military measures against the island would have".
Finally the withdrawal of the Jupiter missiles from Italy, the Thors from Great Britain was considered after the double decision of NATO, during the euromissile crisis (1979-1983) by some as a mistake of Kennedy and a victory of Khrushchev . On January 13, 1982, in a symposium, Helmut Schmidt explained that "President Kennedy had unilaterally withdrawn rockets from European soil as, it seemed at the time, bargaining chips in the context of the rocket crisis of Cuba. In November 1982, on the occasion of the announcement of the death of Leonid Brezhnev, Marie-France Garraud pointed it out on a television set with regard to her interlocutors who considered that the Soviet leader had since 1964 wanted to erase by a policy of nuclear parity and the creation of a navy with the United States, the humiliation of the fall of 1962. The following year, the journalist André Fontaine, favorable to the installation of the Pershings, entitled the intertitle one of his articles "Kennedy's Mistake" and explained that in 1963 the US President withdrew all land-based missiles from Western Europe so that Khrushchev would not lose face for unilaterally withdrawing his missiles from Cuba.
The Cuba crisis in game theory
The missile affair has since become a textbook case in non-zero sum game theory. Each step is carefully examined with an inventory of the possible responses of each party, and the associated risks. The study suggests that the crisis could only be resolved rationally as it was. This approach was challenged by analytical, philological logic Graham T. Allison in The Essence of Decision (1971). It is also a textbook case of complex negotiation:the missile crisis is sometimes used as a model simulation game to train in negotiation.
Chronology of events
The United States, which participated in the independence of Cuba vis-à-vis Spain, kept control over the island until 1902. They then kept indirect control of the island, until the revolution Castro.
January 1959:Fidel Castro overthrows dictator Fulgencio Batista. The United States is the second country in the world to recognize the new regime, just behind the USSR.
May 17, 1959:an agrarian reform chases several American companies, including United Fruit Co, from Cuba .
January 3, 1961:following seizures of private property belonging to American companies (in particular a few hotels), diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba are severed.
January 20, 1961:President Kennedy takes office.
April 16–April 20, 1961:American attempt at an anti-Castro landing in Cuba in the Bay of Pigs. The operation is a failure. The CIA is singled out.
May 1, 1961:Ernesto “Che” Guevara proclaims the socialist character of the Cuban revolution.
November 1961:Installation of Jupiter missiles Americans in Turkey.
February 14, 1962:Cuba is expelled from the Organization of American States (OAS).
September 2, 1962:"Strengthening" of the Soviet aid to Cuba.
September 13, 1962:United States warns Moscow against installing missiles in Cuba.
October 14, 1962:discovered by a spy plane of the placement of SS-4 nuclear missiles in Cuba
October 22, 1962:President Kennedy's televised speech, disclosing the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba and announcing the quarantine. Beginning of the American naval blockade (until October 31). The newspapers of the time evoke a high risk of war.
The Strategic Air Command is placed in Defcon 2, the 3 parties involved place their conventional forces on alert.
October 25, 1962:Soviet ships en route to Cuba are blocked and turned back.
October 25, 1962:Pope John XXIII calls for peace between the United States and the 'USSR
October 28, 1962:Khrushchev announces the dismantling of the offensive weapons installed in Cuba, in return for the commitment of non-invasion of the island of John F. Kennedy and the dismantling of all Jupiter missiles from Turkey from Greece and Italy. This agreement triggers the end of the crisis.
October 30, 1962:final exchange of letters between Fidel Castro and Khrushchev.
November 20, 1962:Castro accepts the withdrawal of Soviet bombers and Kennedy the end of the quarantine.
November 1962:dismissal of Valerian Zorin, Soviet representative to the United Nations (he had denied the presence of nuclear weapons in Cuba), for the post of 'ambassador in Paris.
April 1963:The United States dismantles Jupiter missiles from Turkey and Italy, and bans — or seriously attempts to ban — anti-Castro raids on Cuba.
April 27-June 4, 1963:Fidel Castro's first stay in the USSR.
July 15, 1963:in response to persistent Chinese accusations of capitulation, the central committee of the CPSU, notes that eight months after the end of the crisis, the United States has not attempted to invade r Cuba.
August 5, 1963:signing in Moscow between the United States, the USSR and Great Britain of a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear tests in space.
August 30, 1963:New Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement:creation of a hotline linking the White House directly to the Kremlin.
November 22, 1963:Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, causing amazement and mourning around the world.
January 1964:Fidel Castro's second trip to the USSR.
October 14, 1964:Khrushchev is sacked. This dismissal coincides with the unexpected arrival of the President of the Cuban Republic, Osvaldo Dorticos, back from Cairo where he was attending the conference of non-aligned countries.