Cuban Missile Crisis
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Castro's Rise to Power
First, to understand the Cuban Missile Crisis, one must understand Castro himself. Fidel Castro was a lawyer who studied at the School of Law at the University of Havana. He was a revolutionary from the beginning, joining attempts at over-throwing many different countries. He tried two times in Cuba: first, on July 26, 1953. There he led about 160 men in a stupid and suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in hopes of sparking a popular uprising. It failed and almost all of his men where killed. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He got out in 1955 on political amnesty. In his next attempt, December 2, 1956, he landed 80 armed men on the coast of Oriente province, Cuba, from the yacht Granma. All were killed or captured except for him and nine others. They retreated into the Sierra Maestra of Southwestern Oriente province where he waged guerilla warfare against Dictator Fulgencia Batista's forces. With Castro's support and forces growing, along with a string of victories against the government, Batista fled the country and Fidel became Premier in 1959.
Before he took over, Castro had written about many anti-communist ideals such as: "nationalism [of industries] is, at best, a cumbersome instrument. It does not seem to make the state any stronger, yet it enfeebles private enterprise." He supported freedoms of speech and the press, but after he obtained power, he seemed to forget these things. In fact he seemed to forget all of his promises and did an about-face on most of them. He set up collective farms instead of redistributing the land as he had said. It appears that the only reason that he turned Communist was that he needed to have a way of holding onto his power, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Towards the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960, the U.S. had no policy toward Cuba: there was a sort of wait and see attitude. The Americans did not give them aid, nor did they deny it from them (Cuba did not ask for any). By February of that year, the US didn't have to wait anymore. Two of Castro's cabinet members, his president and several leading members of his original coup force, 26 of July, resigned in protest of increasing influence from the Soviets. In that same month, he signed a trade agreement with the U.S.S.R. indicating that Russia would buy Cuban sugar. In June of 1960, the Cubans expropriated British and American oil refineries, and in retaliation, the US suspended it's import of Cuban sugar. July was a very busy month, followed by a long pause in the build up of hostilities. The Russians sent arms to Cuba from Czechoslovakia, Khrushchev announced that the USSR would launch it's missiles at any country that tried to invade Cuba, and American kept working on isolating Cuba.
The Kennedy Years
John F. Kennedy became President in 1961. With his entering office, the ball on Cuba got rolling. The first thing he did in regard to Cuba was create the "Alliance for Progress." This program used the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote fundamental social and economic reforms throughout all of Latin America. This program was in direct response to 100 million dollars worth of Soviet aid and propaganda that was being put into the area. Alliance for Progress was not as successful as it could have been in making reforms. It was however, extremely effective in stopping Communism and it was a very powerful tool when America urged the OAS to expel Cuba from it's body in January of 1962.
President Kennedy inherited a plan from the Eisenhower Administration that entailed training Cuban revolutionary exiles for a reinvasion of Cuba. Kennedy had three choices: one, cancel it all, which would have probably got him impeached by the Republicans and Southern Democrats; two, carry out the invasion with the full military support of the US, which would have caused nuclear war with Russia and was plainly out of the question; three, let the Cubans invade without United States air or ground support. While risky and stupid, if the Cubans in Cuba would rise up, it might work. So on April 17, 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion was launched. The invasion forces fought for three days on a one day supply of ammo and suffered only minor casualties whilst inflicting a lot of damage for a 1,500 man force. This invasion was a total disaster though. It weakened the Kennedy Administration's political influence, caused many criticisms of the CIA, and eventually lead to the establishment of a Senate Oversight Committee focusing on the CIA. It also cost the United States taxpayers $53,000,000 in food and medical supplies to get the POWs back.
On September 4, 1961, Senator Robert Kennedy met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. In this meeting, RFK stated his and his county's concern about the number of weapons that were in Cuba. The Ambassador assured Kennedy that they were strictly defensive and that the military buildup was of absolutely no significance. A few days later, US spy planes discovered a fairly sizable sub pen being constructed under the guise of a fishing village. The USSR, on September 11th, stated publicly that there was no need for the distribution of nuclear weapons to anywhere outside the Soviet Union including Cuba. That same day, a personal communiqué was received from Khrushchev to the President stating in no uncertain terms that there would be no offensive weapons placed in Cuba.
The Crisis
It was a Tuesday morning, just after 9:00 on October 16, 1962. President John F. Kennedy phoned his brother, Robert Kennedy, and asked him to come to the office. Inside the Oval Office, RFK was informed that U-2 photographs had picked up signs of nuclear missiles and of a missile base being built just outside San Cristobal, Cuba. JFK then called a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (referred to as Ex Comm ) for an in-depth briefing on Cuba from the Intelligence Community . Upon completion of that briefing, Ex Comm began discussing their options. There was no contingency plan for a thing such as this. In fact, the entire Intelligence Community was sure that the Russians would never put nukes in Cuba, they had never done so with any other of their satellite nations, why is this one so special (maybe because it's 90 miles off our coast)? The three plans that they came up with were as follows: a surgical air strike taking out all of the missiles; a complete military invasion; or, a blockade of the island. By Wednesday the 17th, McNamara was the blockade's strongest supporter. His logic was that the blockade was strong, but limited pressure that still left us in control of the situation. The other options where full of holes. The air force could not guarantee 100% destruction of all the missiles, and even if they did destroy all of them, the attack would have to be conducted against all military targets in Cuba, followed by an invasion, to be of any effect. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCoS) unanimously agreed that a full out invasion was the key. They all agreed that the Russians would do nothing to stop them from taking over Cuba. JFK was skeptical saying: "They, no more than we, can let these things go by without doing something. They can't, after all their statements, permit us to take out their missiles, kill a lot of Russians, and then do nothing. If they don't take action in Cuba, they certainly will in Berlin." RFK was also in favor of a blockade, on the basis that the United States could not retain it's moral standing in the world if we were to launch a surprise attack on Cuba.
Later on the 17th, President Kennedy met with the Russian representative Andrei Gromyko, as had been arranged before the missiles were uncovered. Gromyko, upon arriving in the oval office, immediately told the President that the US should stop threatening Cuba and that all the Soviets where doing was helping with food and land development. They were also sending them a few "defensive" weapons. He persisted in telling the President that the objective of the USSR was to "give bread to Cuba in order to prevent hunger in that country." After JFK had explained to him very clearly that it would be very bad for Russia if they were to place offensive weapons in Cuba, Gromyko said his country would never become involved in doing that. Mr. Gromyko's parting words were, to the effect, that none of the defensive weapons could ever constitute a threat to the United States. President Kennedy sat back down at his desk. Inside the middle drawer were fresh photos from this morning's U-2 flight. They outlined between sixteen and thirty-two nuclear missiles with over a 1,000 mile range and several new missile sites. Also in the desk was a report from Intel that the missiles in Cuba had an atomic warhead potential of roughly ½ of the entire Russian ICBM capacity...
The Blockade
On the night of the 19th-20th, the decision was made to go for the blockade option. US allies were notified and military preparations for the blockade, and maybe more, were taken. President Kennedy declared Defcom 2, troops were moved into Florida and the Southeastern United States; the First Armored Division was mobilized and redeployed to Georgia; and five other divisions were placed on maximum alert. The Navy deployed 180 ships into the Caribbean, Strategic Air Command (SAC) distributed it's aircraft to civilian airfields, and put it's B-52 nuclear strike force into the air ready to wipe out all of the USSR, it's sateilite nations, and China. On the 22nd (Monday), the OAS unanimously voted for support of the blockade and it was put in place that same day. Many of the Latin American countries even gave supplies, men and blockade ships to help America. The Russians, for their part, had hardly anything in comparison. Their ships remained dead on course, no troop movements, no missile alert and no launch of their nuclear strike force. They did however speed up construction of the missile sites and began camouflaging them (why didn't they do this from the beginning??).
On Wednesday the 22nd of October, the United States announced the blockade. The blockade line was set at 800 miles then adjusted to 500 miles to give the Russians more time to think. At 10:00 that morning, a report came from Navy Intel that two Russian ships were coming close to the Blockade line. A few minutes later, from the same place, a report came that a Russian submarine had moved in between the ships. Now this complicated matters. The original plan was to send a Cruiser in to conduct the boarding, but do to the added danger, the carrier Essex was ordered to prepare to send over boarding parties. The carrier's commander ordered all of it's Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopters and planes into the air. The plan was, if the submarine refused to surface, the ASW units would drop small depth charges on it until it was forced up. If a cargo ship would not stop, then airplanes from the Essex would shoot out the rudders and propellers, then board it. At 10:25 a naval aid came up to CIA Director John McCone with a sealed envelope. He opened the envelope and said: "Mr. President, we have a preliminary report which seems to indicate that some Russian ships have stopped dead in the water." President Kennedy ordered the ships in the Caribbean to be contacted directly and to be ordered not to interfere with any of the ships that had stopped short of the line. They were to give them every opportunity possible to turn around. Later that day, the UN suggested that the blockade should be lifted for a few weeks if Russia agreed not to send missiles to Cuba. Khrushchev agreed, but Kennedy wisely declined saying "[the crisis was] created by the secret introduction of offensive weapons into Cuba and the answer lies in the removal of such weapons." He followed up that statement by saying that he would be happy to discuss a peaceful and satisfactory solution once those missiles were removed.
The morning the blockade was initiated, Monday the 22nd, low fly-overs of Cuba were increased to eight planes, twice a day. Also, all six submarines that where heading to Cuba were harassed and forced to the surface at least once in the presence of US ships. On the 23rd , Khrushchev sent a condemning letter: "The actions of the USA with regard to Cuba are outright banditry, or, if you like, the folly of degenerate imperialism." He also stated that Soviet ships would not follow American orders. President Kennedy replied on the 25th that it was because of the Soviet's deception that this entire crisis was started and was continuing. The next day, Friday, at 7:24 am, the American built- Panama registered- Soviet chartered- liberty ship Marcula was boarded by armed personnel from two Navy destroyers, searched, and finding nothing contraband, was allowed to pass.
Hours later, due to again increased rates of missile construction, the President ordered the low level flights to be increased to once every two hours, the embargo expanded to oil and lubricants, leaflets to be dropped all over Cuba, and preparations were made for a provisional government of Cuba should invasion be our only course of action left.
Khrushchev's Letter
Six o'clock that evening, the famous emotional letter came from Khrushchev. In it, he wrote about the atrocities of nuclear war, and how he only wishes to "compete peacefully, not by military means." He, most importantly, offered terms: There would be no more placement of missiles in Cuba and all those there would either be removed or destroyed. In exchange for this, the United States would lift the blockade and pledge to not invade Cuba. This message was also transmitted through the Soviet embassy via a rather unusual courier, an ABC reporter. This gets better though... At around noon Moscow time, Soviet radio transmitted a second set of terms. These ones were a trade of pledges of non-invasion and removal of missiles in Cuba, Turkey and Italy. An hour or so later the FBI reported the Soviet embassy in DC was burning all it's sensitive documents, and a couple hours following that, the CIA reported that one of it's U-2s, piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., had been shot down over Cuba. It was now day time in the United States and Ex Comm met yet again to discuss what our course of action should be. Many where in favor of military action but were willing to give the Russians one last chance. RFK and Ted Sorsensen thought that they should respond to Khrushchev's first letter and ignore the second. They went into another room, wrote the letter and brought it back. President Kennedy re-wrote some of it and then had it sent to Khrushchev.
RFK then went to meet with Ambassador Dorbrynin. He told him that the United States didn't give a hoot about the Cuban's complaints of violating their airspace and that if the Russians could not come to some type of agreement by tomorrow we would remove those missile sites for them. Within hours the Russians agreed to the terms in the letter. The missiles in Cuba where removed along with our blockade; we pledged not to invade Cuba; and a couple of months later, the missiles in Turkey and Italy were removed.
The Kennedy administration, nor anyone else, could have done anything better in this situation. Their talent, cool judgment, and wise thinking are a tribute to American leaders. If Kennedy had listened to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we would not be here right now. In closing, President Kennedy listened to the right people and chose wisely.
1 : Ex Comm consisted of: Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; Director of the CIA John McCone; Secretary of Treasury Douglas Dillon; Presidential Advisor on national-security affairs, McGeorge Bundy; Presidential Council Ted Sorensen; Undersecretary of State George Ball; Deputy Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson; General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman JCoS; Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Edward Martin; Advisor on Russian Affairs Llewellyn Thompson; Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric; Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze; along with others intermittently.
2 : Reports of a possible nuclear build up from agents and refugees in and from Cuba had never even reached the President. But that isn't to say that they where ignored. A report from a former employee of the Hilton in Havana lead to the U-2 flight that uncovered the missile base indicated above.
First, to understand the Cuban Missile Crisis, one must understand Castro himself. Fidel Castro was a lawyer who studied at the School of Law at the University of Havana. He was a revolutionary from the beginning, joining attempts at over-throwing many different countries. He tried two times in Cuba: first, on July 26, 1953. There he led about 160 men in a stupid and suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in hopes of sparking a popular uprising. It failed and almost all of his men where killed. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He got out in 1955 on political amnesty. In his next attempt, December 2, 1956, he landed 80 armed men on the coast of Oriente province, Cuba, from the yacht Granma. All were killed or captured except for him and nine others. They retreated into the Sierra Maestra of Southwestern Oriente province where he waged guerilla warfare against Dictator Fulgencia Batista's forces. With Castro's support and forces growing, along with a string of victories against the government, Batista fled the country and Fidel became Premier in 1959.
Before he took over, Castro had written about many anti-communist ideals such as: "nationalism [of industries] is, at best, a cumbersome instrument. It does not seem to make the state any stronger, yet it enfeebles private enterprise." He supported freedoms of speech and the press, but after he obtained power, he seemed to forget these things. In fact he seemed to forget all of his promises and did an about-face on most of them. He set up collective farms instead of redistributing the land as he had said. It appears that the only reason that he turned Communist was that he needed to have a way of holding onto his power, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Towards the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960, the U.S. had no policy toward Cuba: there was a sort of wait and see attitude. The Americans did not give them aid, nor did they deny it from them (Cuba did not ask for any). By February of that year, the US didn't have to wait anymore. Two of Castro's cabinet members, his president and several leading members of his original coup force, 26 of July, resigned in protest of increasing influence from the Soviets. In that same month, he signed a trade agreement with the U.S.S.R. indicating that Russia would buy Cuban sugar. In June of 1960, the Cubans expropriated British and American oil refineries, and in retaliation, the US suspended it's import of Cuban sugar. July was a very busy month, followed by a long pause in the build up of hostilities. The Russians sent arms to Cuba from Czechoslovakia, Khrushchev announced that the USSR would launch it's missiles at any country that tried to invade Cuba, and American kept working on isolating Cuba.
The Kennedy Years
John F. Kennedy became President in 1961. With his entering office, the ball on Cuba got rolling. The first thing he did in regard to Cuba was create the "Alliance for Progress." This program used the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote fundamental social and economic reforms throughout all of Latin America. This program was in direct response to 100 million dollars worth of Soviet aid and propaganda that was being put into the area. Alliance for Progress was not as successful as it could have been in making reforms. It was however, extremely effective in stopping Communism and it was a very powerful tool when America urged the OAS to expel Cuba from it's body in January of 1962.
President Kennedy inherited a plan from the Eisenhower Administration that entailed training Cuban revolutionary exiles for a reinvasion of Cuba. Kennedy had three choices: one, cancel it all, which would have probably got him impeached by the Republicans and Southern Democrats; two, carry out the invasion with the full military support of the US, which would have caused nuclear war with Russia and was plainly out of the question; three, let the Cubans invade without United States air or ground support. While risky and stupid, if the Cubans in Cuba would rise up, it might work. So on April 17, 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion was launched. The invasion forces fought for three days on a one day supply of ammo and suffered only minor casualties whilst inflicting a lot of damage for a 1,500 man force. This invasion was a total disaster though. It weakened the Kennedy Administration's political influence, caused many criticisms of the CIA, and eventually lead to the establishment of a Senate Oversight Committee focusing on the CIA. It also cost the United States taxpayers $53,000,000 in food and medical supplies to get the POWs back.
On September 4, 1961, Senator Robert Kennedy met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. In this meeting, RFK stated his and his county's concern about the number of weapons that were in Cuba. The Ambassador assured Kennedy that they were strictly defensive and that the military buildup was of absolutely no significance. A few days later, US spy planes discovered a fairly sizable sub pen being constructed under the guise of a fishing village. The USSR, on September 11th, stated publicly that there was no need for the distribution of nuclear weapons to anywhere outside the Soviet Union including Cuba. That same day, a personal communiqué was received from Khrushchev to the President stating in no uncertain terms that there would be no offensive weapons placed in Cuba.
The Crisis
It was a Tuesday morning, just after 9:00 on October 16, 1962. President John F. Kennedy phoned his brother, Robert Kennedy, and asked him to come to the office. Inside the Oval Office, RFK was informed that U-2 photographs had picked up signs of nuclear missiles and of a missile base being built just outside San Cristobal, Cuba. JFK then called a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (referred to as Ex Comm ) for an in-depth briefing on Cuba from the Intelligence Community . Upon completion of that briefing, Ex Comm began discussing their options. There was no contingency plan for a thing such as this. In fact, the entire Intelligence Community was sure that the Russians would never put nukes in Cuba, they had never done so with any other of their satellite nations, why is this one so special (maybe because it's 90 miles off our coast)? The three plans that they came up with were as follows: a surgical air strike taking out all of the missiles; a complete military invasion; or, a blockade of the island. By Wednesday the 17th, McNamara was the blockade's strongest supporter. His logic was that the blockade was strong, but limited pressure that still left us in control of the situation. The other options where full of holes. The air force could not guarantee 100% destruction of all the missiles, and even if they did destroy all of them, the attack would have to be conducted against all military targets in Cuba, followed by an invasion, to be of any effect. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCoS) unanimously agreed that a full out invasion was the key. They all agreed that the Russians would do nothing to stop them from taking over Cuba. JFK was skeptical saying: "They, no more than we, can let these things go by without doing something. They can't, after all their statements, permit us to take out their missiles, kill a lot of Russians, and then do nothing. If they don't take action in Cuba, they certainly will in Berlin." RFK was also in favor of a blockade, on the basis that the United States could not retain it's moral standing in the world if we were to launch a surprise attack on Cuba.
Later on the 17th, President Kennedy met with the Russian representative Andrei Gromyko, as had been arranged before the missiles were uncovered. Gromyko, upon arriving in the oval office, immediately told the President that the US should stop threatening Cuba and that all the Soviets where doing was helping with food and land development. They were also sending them a few "defensive" weapons. He persisted in telling the President that the objective of the USSR was to "give bread to Cuba in order to prevent hunger in that country." After JFK had explained to him very clearly that it would be very bad for Russia if they were to place offensive weapons in Cuba, Gromyko said his country would never become involved in doing that. Mr. Gromyko's parting words were, to the effect, that none of the defensive weapons could ever constitute a threat to the United States. President Kennedy sat back down at his desk. Inside the middle drawer were fresh photos from this morning's U-2 flight. They outlined between sixteen and thirty-two nuclear missiles with over a 1,000 mile range and several new missile sites. Also in the desk was a report from Intel that the missiles in Cuba had an atomic warhead potential of roughly ½ of the entire Russian ICBM capacity...
The Blockade
On the night of the 19th-20th, the decision was made to go for the blockade option. US allies were notified and military preparations for the blockade, and maybe more, were taken. President Kennedy declared Defcom 2, troops were moved into Florida and the Southeastern United States; the First Armored Division was mobilized and redeployed to Georgia; and five other divisions were placed on maximum alert. The Navy deployed 180 ships into the Caribbean, Strategic Air Command (SAC) distributed it's aircraft to civilian airfields, and put it's B-52 nuclear strike force into the air ready to wipe out all of the USSR, it's sateilite nations, and China. On the 22nd (Monday), the OAS unanimously voted for support of the blockade and it was put in place that same day. Many of the Latin American countries even gave supplies, men and blockade ships to help America. The Russians, for their part, had hardly anything in comparison. Their ships remained dead on course, no troop movements, no missile alert and no launch of their nuclear strike force. They did however speed up construction of the missile sites and began camouflaging them (why didn't they do this from the beginning??).
On Wednesday the 22nd of October, the United States announced the blockade. The blockade line was set at 800 miles then adjusted to 500 miles to give the Russians more time to think. At 10:00 that morning, a report came from Navy Intel that two Russian ships were coming close to the Blockade line. A few minutes later, from the same place, a report came that a Russian submarine had moved in between the ships. Now this complicated matters. The original plan was to send a Cruiser in to conduct the boarding, but do to the added danger, the carrier Essex was ordered to prepare to send over boarding parties. The carrier's commander ordered all of it's Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) helicopters and planes into the air. The plan was, if the submarine refused to surface, the ASW units would drop small depth charges on it until it was forced up. If a cargo ship would not stop, then airplanes from the Essex would shoot out the rudders and propellers, then board it. At 10:25 a naval aid came up to CIA Director John McCone with a sealed envelope. He opened the envelope and said: "Mr. President, we have a preliminary report which seems to indicate that some Russian ships have stopped dead in the water." President Kennedy ordered the ships in the Caribbean to be contacted directly and to be ordered not to interfere with any of the ships that had stopped short of the line. They were to give them every opportunity possible to turn around. Later that day, the UN suggested that the blockade should be lifted for a few weeks if Russia agreed not to send missiles to Cuba. Khrushchev agreed, but Kennedy wisely declined saying "[the crisis was] created by the secret introduction of offensive weapons into Cuba and the answer lies in the removal of such weapons." He followed up that statement by saying that he would be happy to discuss a peaceful and satisfactory solution once those missiles were removed.
The morning the blockade was initiated, Monday the 22nd, low fly-overs of Cuba were increased to eight planes, twice a day. Also, all six submarines that where heading to Cuba were harassed and forced to the surface at least once in the presence of US ships. On the 23rd , Khrushchev sent a condemning letter: "The actions of the USA with regard to Cuba are outright banditry, or, if you like, the folly of degenerate imperialism." He also stated that Soviet ships would not follow American orders. President Kennedy replied on the 25th that it was because of the Soviet's deception that this entire crisis was started and was continuing. The next day, Friday, at 7:24 am, the American built- Panama registered- Soviet chartered- liberty ship Marcula was boarded by armed personnel from two Navy destroyers, searched, and finding nothing contraband, was allowed to pass.
Hours later, due to again increased rates of missile construction, the President ordered the low level flights to be increased to once every two hours, the embargo expanded to oil and lubricants, leaflets to be dropped all over Cuba, and preparations were made for a provisional government of Cuba should invasion be our only course of action left.
Khrushchev's Letter
Six o'clock that evening, the famous emotional letter came from Khrushchev. In it, he wrote about the atrocities of nuclear war, and how he only wishes to "compete peacefully, not by military means." He, most importantly, offered terms: There would be no more placement of missiles in Cuba and all those there would either be removed or destroyed. In exchange for this, the United States would lift the blockade and pledge to not invade Cuba. This message was also transmitted through the Soviet embassy via a rather unusual courier, an ABC reporter. This gets better though... At around noon Moscow time, Soviet radio transmitted a second set of terms. These ones were a trade of pledges of non-invasion and removal of missiles in Cuba, Turkey and Italy. An hour or so later the FBI reported the Soviet embassy in DC was burning all it's sensitive documents, and a couple hours following that, the CIA reported that one of it's U-2s, piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., had been shot down over Cuba. It was now day time in the United States and Ex Comm met yet again to discuss what our course of action should be. Many where in favor of military action but were willing to give the Russians one last chance. RFK and Ted Sorsensen thought that they should respond to Khrushchev's first letter and ignore the second. They went into another room, wrote the letter and brought it back. President Kennedy re-wrote some of it and then had it sent to Khrushchev.
RFK then went to meet with Ambassador Dorbrynin. He told him that the United States didn't give a hoot about the Cuban's complaints of violating their airspace and that if the Russians could not come to some type of agreement by tomorrow we would remove those missile sites for them. Within hours the Russians agreed to the terms in the letter. The missiles in Cuba where removed along with our blockade; we pledged not to invade Cuba; and a couple of months later, the missiles in Turkey and Italy were removed.
The Kennedy administration, nor anyone else, could have done anything better in this situation. Their talent, cool judgment, and wise thinking are a tribute to American leaders. If Kennedy had listened to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we would not be here right now. In closing, President Kennedy listened to the right people and chose wisely.
1 : Ex Comm consisted of: Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara; Director of the CIA John McCone; Secretary of Treasury Douglas Dillon; Presidential Advisor on national-security affairs, McGeorge Bundy; Presidential Council Ted Sorensen; Undersecretary of State George Ball; Deputy Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson; General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman JCoS; Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Edward Martin; Advisor on Russian Affairs Llewellyn Thompson; Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric; Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze; along with others intermittently.
2 : Reports of a possible nuclear build up from agents and refugees in and from Cuba had never even reached the President. But that isn't to say that they where ignored. A report from a former employee of the Hilton in Havana lead to the U-2 flight that uncovered the missile base indicated above.
