The Impact of Khrushchev on the Cuban Missile Crisis
It was Saturday evening, October 27, 1962, the day the world came very close to destruction. The crisis was not over. Soviet ships had not yet tried to run the United States (US) naval blockade, but the missiles were still on Cuban soil. In Cuba, work continued on the missile sites to make them operational. The situation could either be resolved soon, or events could get out of hand and people would die. That afternoon, a US U-2 reconnaissance plane had been shot down by mistake. "The Soviet leader had given orders not to shoot down any U-2 surveillance planes. A local Soviet commander violated those orders on October 27 when he downed Major Rudolph's Anderson's U-2 with a surface-to-air missile. Soviet officials seem to have understood this could have brought retaliatory strikes and perhaps even a U.S. invasion."i The Soviet position seemed to be hardening with the arrival of a letter Saturday morning from Khrushchev demanding that the US remove its Jupiter missiles from Turkey as a condition of Soviet removal of the missiles in Cuba. "The letter struck U.S. officials as an ominous hardening of the Soviet position from the previous day's letter from Khrushchev, which had omitted any mention of American missiles in Turk
So here we were on the brink. On the night of the 27th Robert Kennedy met again with Dobrynin at the Soviet embassy. Although there are conflicting accounts of this meeting, it seems clear that Kennedy proposed a trade of missiles in Turkey for missiles in Cuba, with the understanding that removal of the missiles in Turkey cannot be announced for six months. He further demanded that the quid pro quo be kept secret, as the White House would deny the existence of any such deal. As Kennedy returned to the White House, he knew that the end to this crisis rested with Khrushchev. On April 17-18, 1960, President Kennedy suffered a major foreign policy defeat after the American-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion failed. Of the 1,400 anti-Cuban emigres, 1,189 were captured and 114 killed. By coincidence, April 17 was Khrushchev's birthday. The next day, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent a memo to his brother saying, "if we don't want Russia to set up missile bases in Cuba, we had better decide now what we are willing to do to stop it." vii He identified three possible courses of action: (1) sending US troops into Cuba, a proposal, "you have already rejected for good and sufficient reasons (although this might have to be reconsidered);"viii (2) placing a strict naval blockade around Cuba; or (3) calling on the Organization of American States (OAS) to prohibit the shipment to Cuba of arms from any outside source. He also wrote that, "something forceful and determined must be done. The time has come for a showdown for in a year or two the situation will be vastly worse."ix It was a statement that would turn out to be very prophetic. By the end of 1960, relations between the United States and Cuba had seriously deteriorated. On December 19, Cuba and the Soviet Union issued a joint announcement that Cuba would hereafter align itself with the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet Union and committed itself to solidarity with the Sino-Soviet bloc. On January 2, 1961, Khrushchev told a gathering at the Cuban Embassy in Moscow, "alarming news is coming from Cuba at present, news that the most aggressive American monopolists are preparing a direct attack on Cuba. What is more, they are trying to present the case as though rocket bases are being set up or are already established in Cuba. It is well know that this is a foul slander. There is no Soviet military base in Cuba."vi The next day, the United States and Cuba severed diplomatic relations, the US turning over the handling of its affairs to Switzerland and Cuba to Czechoslovakia. It was in this environment that President John F. Kennedy took office. He was inaugurated on January 20, 1960. At the summit in Vienna, Khrushchev took a hard tack with Kennedy. Kennedy later told the press that Khrushchev's demands had made the prospects for war very real. Khrushchev himself was pleased with the outcome and told associates later that he felt Kennedy was someone he could bully. "He concluded that Kennedy was a mere 'boy' and he was therefore thinking about 'what we can do in our interest and at the same time subject Kennedy to a test of strength.'"xii He told his aides that Kennedy had wishy-washy behavior saying, "'I know for certain that Kennedy doesn't have a strong backbone, nor, generally speaking, does he have the courage to stand up to a serious challenge.'"xiii At 8:45 AM on October 16, McGeorge Bundy informed the President that they had the evidence that Soviet MRBMs were in Cuba. Kennedy called an 11:45 meeting and the group that was to be known as ExComm was established. During meetings that day, ExComm discussed various options, including approaching Khrushchev. The same day in Moscow, Khrushchev, during a three-hour conversation with US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Foy Kohler, reassured Kohler that the Soviet Union was helping to build a fishing port for the Cubans that would be entirely nonmilitary. He again insisted that all Soviet activ
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 6324
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page double spaced)
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