The Global War: Confrontation between the superpowers -> The 13 days of the missile crisis Flashcards
What was EXCOMM?
Ad hoc group of top government officials and top military leaders who advised Kennedy
- it met everyday during the crisis
What was the US so tragically convinced of?
That Cuba was its backyard that it never thought it the USSR would send missiles there until it discovered they had on 14 October 1961
What were the two sides of the US government trying to win Kennedy over to their perspective?
The Doves and Hawks
Who were the Doves?
- Dean Rusk - Secretary of State
- ‘Bobby’ Kennedy - Attorney General
- Robert McNamara - Secretary of Defense
What were the Doves?
- Symbol of peace
- Faction most in favour of a negotiated settlement
- Committed to working with Soviets
What were the Hawks?
Military men who wanted a confrontation
What members of the Hawks were there?
- Maxwell Taylor - Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- General Curtis Lamay - Head of Strategic Air Command
What balance was needed and was it easy?
A balance had to be struck between civilian and military leaders
- the military tended to hold more ‘hawkish’ opinions
Who were the key Soviet actors?
Dobrinin and Gromyko were frantically active during the 13 days of the crisis - they had to serve both Khrushchev AND try to avoid a war
Who was Anotoly Dobrinin?
- Soviet ambassador
- Will be with Brezhnev and Gorbachev
Who was Andrei Gromyko?
- Soviet foreign minister
- wins over Bobby Kennedy and Dean Rusk
What motivated all of Kennedy’s actions?
Everything Kennedy does is in the shadow of the November 1962 mid-term elections
What happened specifically on October 14th 1962?
A U-2 US spy plane flight produced unmistakable evidence of an R-12 missile site at San Cristobal, ending the secrecy of Soviet nuclear deployment
What happened specifically on 16th October 1962?
Kennedy’s National Security Adviser, McGeorge Bundy informed him of the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba
What happened on October 14th-17th 1962?
- Excomm meets and debates; the Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly advise Kennedy to make an air strike
- Consisted of ‘hawks’ who called for US military action and ‘doves’ who called for a diplomatic solution
What option did Kennedy opt to to deal with the missiles?
Kennedy opted for a naval blockade that would stem the flow of missiles entering Cuba
What happened on October 18th 1962?
Gromyko assures Kennedy that Soviet Cuban aid has been only for the ‘defensive capabilities of Cuba’
- based on events like April 1961 Bay of Pigs incident, March 1962 Operation Quick Kick, US missiles in Turkey
What happened on October 22nd 1962?
US military forces go to DEFCON 3.
- Kennedy announced a ‘quarantine zone’ around Cuba
- If any Soviet ships entered this zone, action would be taken
- On the same day Soviet ships were stopped and turned away from Cuba
- US bases were also put on maximum alert in preparation of a possible military strike against Cuba
-> Act of brinkmanship, breaks international law
What did Eisenhower begin making plans for?
An immediate invasion of Cuba
- 180,000 troops were moved into Florida as if in preparation for an invasion (pressured by Hawks and Doves)
- Nuclear submarines were sent to patrol the waters around Cuba
- Bomber squadrons equipped with nuclear weapons were ordered to fly sorties around Cuba
What happened on October 23rd 1962?
Kennedy receives a letter from Khrushchev in which he states that there is a, ‘serious threat to peace and security of peoples,’ and offers to remove the missiles if the USA undertook to respect Cuban sovereignty
- Robert Kennedy speaks with Ambassador Antonin Dobrinin
-> age of proliferation
Who met on October 23rd 1962?
The UN Security Council
- The US ambassador, Adlai Stevenson condemned the Soviet deployment and referred to Cuba as ‘an accomplice in the communist enterprise of world domination’
How did Kennedy react to the blockade?
He called it ‘an act of aggression…pushing mankind toward the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war’
What happened on October 24th 1962?
- Soviet ships en route to Cuba, reverse their course except for one, - US Military Forces go to DEFCON 2
What happened on October 25th 1962?
JFK sends a letter to Khrushchev placing the responsibility for the crisis on the Soviet Union