DISCUSSION 5A:  CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS SIMULATION

INTRODUCTION

"We're eyeball to eyeball and I think the other side just blinked," noted American Secretary of State Dean Rusk at the end of the October 1962 confrontation that brought the world to the edge of nuclear war.

For the Russians, the summer 1962 decision to build secret missile installations in the Caribbean was a bold attempt to follow up on diplomatic successes of the past two years and to gain a measure of atomic parity by countering U.S. launch pads in Turkey and Western Europe.  For Fidel Castro and the Cubans, the placement of the MRBMs on the island was seen as a possible way to deter another American-sponsored invasion (the Bay of Pigs had taken place the previous year).

On October 14, U.S. spy planes photographed the construction of an SS-4 missile site near San Cristobal.  President John F. Kennedy immediately set up EX-COMM, an emergency advisory group consisting of twelve of his most trusted advisors.  All agreed that the presence of nuclear weapons ninety miles from American shores and within striking distance of the nation's capital was unacceptable.  The Joint Chiefs of Staff called for military action.  The Air Force supported intensive bombing sorties of Cuba.

On October 22, Kennedy informed the American public of the crisis.  "Within the past week unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island," he declared.  "The purposes of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere."  He also told the citizenry of the response he had decided upon: a naval "quarantine" eight hundred miles from Cuba to prevent further shipments of Soviet military hardware.

Tense days followed.  On October 25, American Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson provided conclusive surveillance images of the missile installations just after the Soviet ambassador had denied their existence.  That same day, Kennedy raised American nuclear readiness to DEFCON 2, the highest level it reached during the Cold War years.  On October 27, the Soviets shot down an American U-2 plane over Cuba and Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded the removal of the missiles in Turkey.

The crisis was resolved when U.S. officials decided to respond to the more accommodating of two contradictory Soviet communications and when Khrushchev, in turn, announced that he would dismantle the missiles in return for an American promise not to invade Cuba.  Less than a year after the denouement, the Soviet Premier and the American President signed a treated agreeing to a ban on the atmospheric testing of atomic weapons.

Khrushchev's fall from power was supported by hard-liners who argued he had betrayed weakness in backing down under American pressure.  It would later be revealed that, unbeknownst to EX-COMM and the U.S. military, armed tactical nuclear weapons had already been set up by the Soviets on Cuban territory.  Khrushchev had granted his ground commanders the authority to use these in the case of an American attack.

PROCEDURE

Browse in several of the web-sites listed below.  Familiarize yourself with the basic details of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with an emphasis upon President Kennedy's options and decisions.

 News Articles

• Richard Holbrooke, "Real W.M.D.'s," New York Times, June 22, 2008.

• Carlo Wolff, "New Views Of The Cuban Missile Crisis," Christian Science Monitor, June 2, 2008.

• Tim Weiner, "Word For Word/ The Cuban Missile Crisis; When The World Stood On Edge And Nobody Died Beautifully," New York Times, October 13, 2002.

Articles

• Ernest May, "John F. Kennedy And The Cuban Missile Crisis":  An article from the BBC History web-site.

Web-sites

• Thirteen Days And History:  Produced by Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in conjunction with the release of the Hollywood movie "Thirteen Days."

• Cuban Missile Crisis -- Wikipedia:  A concise overview from the on-line encyclopedia.

• Fourteen Days in October :  A Think Quest that offers a comprehensive introduction to the crisis.

• Cuban Missile Crisis:  A simulation from the NEH-sponsored Teaching American History.

• President Kennedy And The Cuban Missile Crisis:  A U.K. National Archives 20th Century Heroes and Villains lesson plan.

• Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 -- The 40th Anniversary:  An archive of documents from George Washington University.

• "To Be . . . Or Not To Be" -- The U.S. Response To The Cuban Missile Crisis:  An impressive web-quest in which participants are asked to adopt the roles of individual members of Kennedy's emergency Ex-Comm advisory group.

• Cuban Missile Crisis--Spartacus:  A very brief synopsis from the UK-based educational site.

Audio Sources

• Cuban Missile Crisis -- 40 Years On, BBC Radio 4, October 16-28, 2002.  A commemorative seven-part retrospective on the two weeks in 1962 during which the world seemed to rest on the brink of nuclear war.

• Cuban Missile Crisis, October 18-29, 1962:  Tapes from the John F. Kennedy Library documenting the crisis.

• Cuban Missile Crisis, Talk of the Nation, June 18, 1997.  The guests on this NPR talk show, co-authors of One Hell of A Gamble -- Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, argue that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. came even closer to war in October 1962 than previously realized.

DISCUSSION FORUM

Contemporary U.S. Presidents might well learn from John F. Kennedy's reasonable and measured response during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Agree or disagree with this statement and discuss.

Adlai Stevenson and his assistant exhibit proof of the Cuban Soviet missile sites at the UN on October 25

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