Cuban Missile Crisis By Philip Brenner CIA Briefing

Cuban Missile Crisis By Philip Brenner

CIA Briefing Map Meeting of the Ex. Comm October 16, 1962

U-2 Photo of Missile Site, October 14, 1962

Missile Warhead

Ex. Comm Deliberation During the Crisis

Letter from Nikita Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy, October 26, 1962

Black Saturday – Second Letter

Black Saturday Low-level reconnaissance of Cuban antiaircraft sites

U. S. Lessons • Crises can be managed ─ Secrecy ─ Small group with open discussion ─ Exclude and misinform Congress and public • Steel Will (“Eyeball to Eyeball”) ─ Toughness ─ Resolve • Superior Strength ─ Build up Military ─ Exercise Coercive Diplomacy

Problems with US Lessons First Cut • Crises cannot be managed • Flexibility, not steel will, saved us • Force or threat of force precipitated the crisis, made it more dangerous

US Misconstrues Soviet Motives Summit in Vienna Austria, June 1961 Berlin Wall Erected, August 1961

Jan. 3, 1961

Bay of Pigs The next day, 1, 500 U. S. trained Cuban exiles landed on Cuba with weapons supplied by the United States.

Richard Goodwin Meets Ché Guevara ●●●

Operation Mongoose Memorandum from Gen. Lansdale to Special Group (Augmented) -- Pg 1

Gen. Lansdale Memorandum (Continued) -- Pg 2

Operation Anadyr In July 1962 the Soviet Union began to send ballistic missiles, other weapons and soldiers to Cuba. The build-up troubles US military planners, even as they conclude that ballistic missiles are not being installed.

New York Times October 23, 1961 . . .

Soviet Union responds by exploding a 50 -megaton hydrogen bomb in the atmosphere, Oct 30, 1961 White House Statement

Problems with US Lessons Second Cut • Crisis management Groupthink and exclusion of information • Steel will inflexibility and no negotiations; force becomes only alternative • Coercive diplomacy military build-up; ignores factors such as patriotism

Soviet Lessons • Crises cannot be managed • Crises must be prevented – Improve communications with the other superpower – Achieve parity (equal military force) with US

President Kennedy’s American University Speech June 10, 1963

Cuban Lessons • Neither superpower can be trusted • Cuba must defend itself with asymmetric warfare – Support revolution in Third World – Strengthen military forces – Intensify internal security

Castro’s Five Demands • Cessation of the US economic embargo and US pressure on other countries to cut commercial links to Cuba; • End US subversive activities against Cuba, including the “organization of invasions by mercenaries” and “infiltration of spies and saboteurs” • Cease “piratical attacks” from bases in the United States and Puerto Rico • End violations of Cuban airspace • US withdrawal from Guantanamo Naval Base

Anastas Mikoyan Arrives in Cuba

IL-28 Bomber (Bulgarian model in Cuba)

How Castro Remembered Mikoyan’s Visit -- From: James Blight and Philip Brenner, Sad and Luminous Days

OSPAAL: Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America

Cuban Missile Caribbean October Crisis