Cuban missile crisis, 60 years on: what the Russians left behind

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Villagers became enmeshed in a battle for nuclear dominance – with the showdown leading Cuba to become one of the most militarised states in the world

was arming, the way they were expanding their regular forces, was aimed at expanding their deterrent capability,” said Hal Klepak, professor emeritus of history and strategy at the Royal Military College of Canada. “So if the Soviets come along and say, ‘We can make your deterrent a thousand times more credible,’ the Cubans are going to say, ‘Yes please!’”

Kennedy ordered a “quarantine” of Cuba, enforced by US warships on 22 October, to stop more missiles reaching Cuba.For the next week, the world stood still, riveted and terrified, as Soviet ships carrying more warheads edged ever closer.In Washington, the US secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, wondered aloud whether he “would live to see another Saturday night”.

After a flurry of secret meetings and dramatic telegrams, the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, proposed a swap. He would withdraw all missiles from Cuba if the Americans removed theirs from Turkey, which bordered the USSR. The US, he proposed, should also pledge not to invade Cuba after the Soviet withdrawal.

Philip Brenner, professor emeritus of history and international relations at American University in Washington, said: “The traditional view that Kennedy was firm and unblinking was conveyed by the Kennedy hagiographers. In fact, we were both blinking all the time. Kennedy was looking for ways to back down, trying to find a non-military way out of the crisis.”

 

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