The Cuban Missile Crisis

Ninety miles from Florida

On 14 October 1962 an American U-2 flying over western Cuba photographed launch sites for Soviet medium-range missiles under construction near San Cristobal. The analysts confirmed it the next day. The missiles, once ready, could reach Washington in a few minutes from an island ninety miles from Florida, and around 40,000 Soviet troops were already on Cuba to protect them. For a week Kennedy and a committee of advisers he called ExComm argued in secret between an air strike, an invasion and a naval blockade. On 22 October he went on television, announced a quarantine of Cuba, and put American forces at DEFCON 2, one step short of war. On the 24th Soviet ships approached the line and turned back. On Saturday the 27th, the worst day, a U-2 was shot down over Cuba, another strayed over Siberia, and a Soviet submarine was depth-charged to the surface. That evening Robert Kennedy told the Soviet ambassador that the missiles must go and that the American missiles in Turkey would follow, quietly, within months. On the morning of 28 October Radio Moscow announced the withdrawal. The exam asks why the missiles were sent, how the crisis was handled, and what followed: a hotline, a test ban treaty, the fall of Khrushchev and a Soviet arms build-up that lasted twenty years. This module gives you the dated evidence and the three question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

The thirteen days and after, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• A U-2 photographs missile sites under construction in western Cuba
• Kennedy announces the quarantine on television and forces go to DEFCON 2
• Soviet ships approaching the quarantine line stop and turn back
• A U-2 is shot down over Cuba and the second Khrushchev letter demands the Turkish missiles
• Radio Moscow announces that the missiles will be withdrawn
• The hotline is installed and the Test Ban Treaty is signed

Why did Khrushchev put missiles on Cuba?

The Soviet Union had never placed nuclear weapons outside its own territory. Which explanation best accounts for the decision of May 1962?

• The Soviet Union was far behind in intercontinental missiles and knew the Americans knew it, so medium-range missiles on Cuba would double the Soviet strike force at once; the United States had put 15 Jupiter missiles in Turkey on the Soviet border in 1961 and Khrushchev wanted to show them what that felt like; Castro, after the Bay of Pigs and the CIA sabotage of Operation Mongoose, was asking for protection against a second invasion; and Khrushchev, who had judged Kennedy weak at Vienna, expected to present the missiles as a fact in November and win a bargain over Berlin.
• Khrushchev planned a surprise nuclear attack on the United States.
• Castro built the missiles himself and asked Moscow to supply the warheads.
• China pressed Khrushchev to challenge the Americans.

The options on the table

The narrative question rewards knowing why the blockade was chosen. Set the ExComm options of 16 to 21 October beside what the blockade then achieved.

Black Saturday

Five statements about 27 October 1962. Tap the TWO that give evidence of how close the crisis came to war that day, as opposed to how it was resolved.

• A U-2 flown by Major Rudolf Anderson was shot down over eastern Cuba by a Soviet missile, the only combat death of the crisis, and the Joint Chiefs pressed for an immediate strike on the sites.
• Kennedy decided to answer the first Khrushchev letter of 26 October, which asked only for a promise not to invade, and to ignore the second, which added the Turkish missiles.
• American destroyers dropped practice depth charges on the Soviet submarine B-59 to force it to surface, not knowing it carried a nuclear torpedo and that two of its three officers had voted to fire it.
• Robert Kennedy met Ambassador Dobrynin at the Justice Department in the evening and told him that the Jupiters in Turkey would be gone within months provided the promise was never made public.
• The next morning Khrushchev broadcast his acceptance on Radio Moscow rather than wait for the diplomatic channel.

Consequences of the crisis

Select the THREE statements that are true consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• A hotline between Washington and Moscow was installed in June 1963, because messages during the crisis had taken up to twelve hours to pass, and the Test Ban Treaty of 5 August 1963 ended nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in space and under water.
• Khrushchev was seen at home and in Beijing as having backed down, since the Turkish deal stayed secret, and the humiliation was one of the charges when the Politburo removed him in October 1964.
• The Soviet leadership resolved never to be caught weaker again and built up its missiles and navy through the 1960s until it reached rough parity with the United States by around 1970, which was the position from which detente was negotiated.
• Castro was overthrown and Cuba became an American ally.
• The United States publicly agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey as part of the settlement.
• Both sides agreed to give up nuclear weapons.

Who won, and why the question misleads

The importance question on this bullet asks what Cuba meant for relations between the superpowers. Students often answer with who won. The strong answer says what each side got and what both learned. What each side got. Kennedy got the missiles out in public and a reputation for cool nerve that lasted; Khrushchev got a promise that Cuba would not be invaded, which held, and the removal of the Jupiters from Turkey by April 1963, which he could not mention. Castro, who had wanted the missiles fired, got nothing he asked for and was not consulted about the deal. What both learned. That the two men in charge had come within a shot-down aircraft or a submarine torpedo of a war neither wanted; that communication had to be faster than a coded telegram; and that competition would have to be managed rather than left to chance. This meant that the hotline of June 1963 and the Test Ban Treaty of August were not gestures but the first rules of a game both sides now knew was real, and that the detente of the 1970s began as the memory of October 1962. A judgement that gives the crisis both the closest call and the first arms control, and dates them, reaches the top level.

In the shoes of Kennedy and Khrushchev

Four decisions in October 1962. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• 20 October. You are Kennedy. ExComm is split: the Joint Chiefs want an air strike on Monday, your brother says a surprise attack is not what the United States does, and the sites will be ready in days. What do you choose?
• 24 October. You are Khrushchev. Sixteen of your ships are approaching the American line and the missiles already on Cuba are not yet ready. What do you order the ships to do?
• 27 October, afternoon. You are Kennedy. Yesterday a long emotional letter from Khrushchev offered to withdraw for a promise not to invade. This morning a second, formal letter added the Jupiters in Turkey. A U-2 has just been shot down. What do you do?
• Night of 27 to 28 October. You are Khrushchev. Dobrynin reports the private assurance on Turkey, and warns that the Americans will strike within days. Castro is urging you to fire first. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because the invasion at the _____ failed in April 1961, Castro turned to Moscow and Khrushchev judged Kennedy weak. Because the Soviet Union was behind in long-range missiles and the Americans had Jupiters in _____, Khrushchev decided in May 1962 to put medium-range missiles on Cuba. Because a U-2 found the sites on 14 October, a month before they were ready, Kennedy had time to choose a _____ rather than a strike. Because the Soviet ships turned back on 24 October and the letters passed, the crisis ended on 28 October with a public pledge not to invade and a secret one on Turkey. And because messages had taken up to twelve hours, a _____ linked the two capitals from the following summer, with the _____ signed that August.

The Jupiters

In 1962 the United States had 15 Jupiter missiles in Turkey and 30 in Italy, all within range of the Soviet Union. How many Jupiter missiles stood in Europe in total?

The 8-mark consequences question

Question 1 might read: Explain two consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Each consequence is marked as a consequence plus supporting detail, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four marks for ONE consequence?

• One consequence was the first arms control agreement of the Cold War. Both leaders had seen how close the crisis came to war, so a hotline was installed between Washington and Moscow in June 1963 to replace messages that had taken up to twelve hours, and on 5 August 1963 the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain signed the Test Ban Treaty ending nuclear tests in the atmosphere, which meant that the two sides had for the first time agreed to limit the arms race rather than simply run it.
• One consequence was that the two sides got on better and there was a hotline.
• One consequence was that Khrushchev had wanted to protect Cuba after the Bay of Pigs.
• On 22 October Kennedy announced the quarantine, on 24 October the ships turned back, and on 28 October Khrushchev gave in.

A narrative paragraph, marked

Question 2: Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. You may use: the U-2 flight of 14 October; the naval blockade. The crisis began on 14 October 1962 when a U-2 photographed launch sites under construction near San Cristobal in western Cuba, because Khrushchev had decided in May to place medium-range missiles on the island in secret and the American flight found them a month before they were ready. This led Kennedy to convene ExComm from 16 October, where the Joint Chiefs pressed for an air strike and Robert Kennedy argued against a surprise attack, and on 20 October the president chose a naval blockade as the one step that used force without firing a shot. As a result he went on television on 22 October to announce the quarantine and put American forces at DEFCON 2, so that the next move lay with Khrushchev and his ships. The turning point came on 24 October, because the sixteen Soviet ships approaching the line stopped and turned back, which showed that Khrushchev would not force the issue at sea and that the crisis would be settled by letters rather than by a collision. What earned the marks: events in sequence with dates; each event linked to the next by because, this led to and as a result, so that the account analyses rather than lists; and the turning point named. One more paragraph, from the two letters of 26 and 27 October through the shooting down of the U-2 and the Dobrynin meeting to Radio Moscow on 28 October, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the narrative account

Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. You may use the following in your answer: the U-2 flight of 14 October; the naval blockade. You must also use information of your own.

• The span: from the discovery of the missiles on 14 October to the Soviet announcement of 28 October
• Detail that counts: a name, a number or a place
• Events of your own: ExComm, the ships turning, the two letters, the U-2 shot down, or the Kennedy-Dobrynin meeting

The importance question

Question 3 might read: Explain the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis for relations between the superpowers. Which answer best explains the importance, rather than describing the event?

• The crisis was important because it showed both governments that nuclear competition could kill them by accident: a U-2 shot down, a submarine depth-charged with a nuclear torpedo aboard, and messages taking twelve hours had brought the two closest to war they ever came. This meant that within a year they had built a hotline and signed the Test Ban Treaty, the first agreements to manage the arms race rather than run it, and that the detente of the 1970s grew from the lesson of October 1962, even as the Soviet Union built up to parity so that it would never again negotiate from weakness.
• The crisis was important because it lasted thirteen days, involved a blockade 500 miles out, and ended when Khrushchev withdrew the missiles.
• The crisis was important because Kennedy won and Khrushchev was humiliated.
• The crisis was important because Cuba stayed communist for the rest of the Cold War.