13 Days Of CMC Flashcards
U2 spy planes captured images of ..
Missiles at san cristobal. Unmistakable evidence of an R-12 missile site.
What was Khrushchev’s reasoning behind nuclear missiles on Cuba and why do some historians present the USA as the primary causal factor in determining soviet actions?
Purely defensive in order to address the potential for us aggression against Cuba which would have posed no significant threat to the USA.
What was the operation for the soviet decision to deploy nuclear missiles?
Operation Anadyr to reduce the missile gap and redress the imbalance
Khr wanted to reduce spending on conventional military forces
16 oct day 1
Assembled excomm
Created to consider policy options: Robert McNamara, Robert Kennedy
Hawks vs doves.
20th oct
Kennedy decides on a naval blockade
Designed to stop the flow of submarines carrying missiles entering Cuba
Give time for jfk to find a solution
Us bases also put on maximum alert in preparation for a possible military strike against cuba
22nd oct
Kennedy addresses the nation and demand soviet missiles to be removed
Moral and integrity
‘I call upon khr to eliminate this reckless and provocative threat to world peace’ and to ‘abandon his course for world domination.’
23rd oct
UN Security Council meets
Soviet ambassadors were not told about missiles
24th oct
First soviet ships turn around
Delegated responsibility and accountability for the su to provoke aggression or start a war so if there was a war, the USA can say that they didn’t start it bc the blockade was broken- act of war.
Neared the line of the blockade, clumsy to even impose brinkmanship because it could have led to the outbreak of war- warmongers.
26th oct
Khr sends jfk a telegram
No mentioning of turkey
Castro makes things tougher by ordering Cuban anti-aircraft forces to fire on spy planes, trigger reason as to why there was an acceleration in the culture of distrust and failings
27 oct x3
Khr sends a second letter much more aggressive- turkey mentioned 11 times, suggest the situation is ‘irreconcilable’
U2 spy planes captured images shot down by a soviet-supplied missile n pilot major Rudolph Anderson is killed- fair assumption that this was the last straw for the hawks and provided them with urgent justification to convince Kennedy to launch airstrikes but jfk said no.
JFK replied to first letter and Robert Kennedy told dobrymu that jfk will remove missiles in turkey but in private and secret [didnt want to undermine nato] and deniability.
28 oct
K agrees to remove missiles, crisis over.
JFK’s approval rating skyrocketed
But the ussr emerged from the crisis with a determination to restore its international status
Prelude to detente
Some matters on which the us and ussr could agree on
Test ban treaty 1963
Nuclear non- proliferation treaty 1968
Hot line connecting the kremlin n the White House.
Improve crisis management
Cuba remained communist
Questioned the validity of us containment and Truman doctrine.
Castro sees this a victory and success- posturing - sent troops to Angola.
Kennedy administration developed the….
Single integrated operational plan- assumed that mutually assured destruction was not the only possible outcome in case of war
Kennedy said
‘Between 1 in 3 and even chance of escalating to hot war.’
Vasili arkhipov
Did not agree to launch submarine missile attack
