Cuban missile crisis: The other, secret one

[FBM]

Wow. This is pretty shocking...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19930260

Cuban missile crisis: The other, secret one

Contrary to popular belief, the Cuban missile crisis did not end with the agreement between the US and Soviet Union in October, 1962. Unknown to the US at the time, there were 100 other nuclear weapons also in the hands of Cuba, sparking a frantic - and ingenious - Russian mission to recover them.

...

Fearing that Castro's hurt pride and widespread Cuban indignation over the concessions Khrushchev had made to Kennedy, might lead to a breakdown of the agreement between the superpowers, the Soviet leader concocted a plan to give Castro a consolation prize.

The prize was an offer to give Cuba more than 100 tactical nuclear weapons that had been shipped to Cuba along with the long-range missiles, but which crucially had passed completely under the radar of US intelligence.

Khrushchev concluded that because the Americans hadn't listed the missiles on their list of demands, the Soviet Union's interests would be well served by keeping them in Cuba.

Kremlin number two, Anastas Mikoyan, was charged with making the trip to Havana, principally to calm Castro down and make him what seemed like an offer he couldn't refuse.
...

In the weeks that followed, Mikoyan kept the detail of the missile transfer to himself while he witnessed the mood swings and paranoia of the Cuban leader convinced that Moscow had sold Cuba's defence down the river.

...

He then extricated Moscow from a seemingly intractable situation which risked blowing the entire crisis back up in the faces of Kennedy and Khrushchev.

...

On 22 November 1962, during a tense, four-hour meeting, Mikoyan was forced to use the dark arts of diplomacy to convince Castro that despite Moscow's best intentions, it would be in breach of an unpublished Soviet law (which didn't actually exist) to transfer the missiles permanently into Cuban hands and provide them with an independent nuclear deterrent.

Finally after Mikoyan's trump card, Castro was forced to give way and - much to the relief of Khrushchev and the whole Soviet government - the tactical nuclear weapons were finally crated and returned by sea back to the Soviet Union during December 1962.

[klr]

It's not so much unknown, more just not understood. History just isn't as simple as people might like it to be. A lot of people mightn't realise that the removal of US missiles from Turkey and Italy was part of the deal - because it was secret at the time.

The Cold War documentary series (1998) had a bizarre interview with Castro who was still ranting and raving about the whole affair, and who appeared to be unrepentant about his itchy nuclear trigger-finger.

But the most frightening part of the whole crisis was this IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Anyway, Mikoyan's involvement in the crisis is a plus point for him. That said, even as the most sympathetic of Stalin's inner circle, he still had a huge amount of blood on his hands.

[Cormac]

It's not so much unknown, more just not understood. History just isn't as simple as people might like it to be. A lot of people mightn't realise that the removal of US missiles from Turkey and Italy was part of the deal - because it was secret at the time.

The Cold War documentary series (1998) had a bizarre interview with Castro who was still ranting and raving about the whole affair, and who appeared to be unrepentant about his itchy nuclear trigger-finger.

But the most frightening part of the whole crisis was this IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Anyway, Mikoyan's involvement in the crisis is a plus point for him. That said, even as the most sympathetic of Stalin's inner circle, he still had a huge amount of blood on his hands.

Hats off to you KLR.

[FBM]

Ah. I started reading klr's post days ago, tracked down the story and got so engrossed in it that I forgot to give props to klr for providing me with a very interesting hour or so. klr.

[Ian]

But the most frightening part of the whole crisis was this IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Have you read Robert O'Connell's essay "Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" in Robert Crowley's What If? books? It's a great read about how everything could have spun out of control starting with a nuclear torpedo from one of the Soviet subs.

[klr]

But the most frightening part of the whole crisis was this IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Have you read Robert O'Connell's essay "Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" in Robert Crowley's What If? books? It's a great read about how everything could have spun out of control starting with a nuclear torpedo from one of the Soviet subs.

Ack! It's in the third volume - I only have the first two.

Plans a quick trip to the bookshops in the next couple of hours ...

[macdoc]

I just wrote this about Vasili on another forum- what an incredible story - scared me a second time 50 years later.



What an incredible story and I had no idea despite having lived that damn 13 days of the Cuban Missile crisis.

how close???
Dean Rusk ( Sec of State)
told McNamara ( Secretary of Defense )

it could be the last sunset they would ever see…… :-(

and they had no idea what was going on in the sub the US had trapped.

The US was already at Defcon 2 and the nuclear weapons were in the air.

What the US did not know was that the 4 subs in the area had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the Atlantic Fleet of the US and that the subs did not need the permission from Moscow to launch and could not reach Moscow.

The US had trapped a sub and while not directly attacking it were trying to force it to surface and both sides were mis-interpreting the actions.
The sub commander had no info from Moscow and the sub commander actually loaded the nuclear weapon.
Temperatures in the sub were 120 degrees.
They were actually arguing about launching - the sub commander was ready to launch and he had the support of the political officer with the second key

but the fleet commander pulled rank against the two of them ….this is coming directly from the Russian records - it was just that close…..I had no idea. His name Vasili Arkhipov - he died of radiation poisoning.

Finally Vasili, the soviet fleet commander overruled the two subordinates and surfaced the sub and that part of the crisis was over. One of the sailors on the destroyers took some film of the sub turning back.

The US guy in charge of says flat out if the sub had launched the nuclear torpedo there would have been nuclear war.

The three commanders were humilated when they got home.

Vasili Archipov was the key person.

It only came to light in 2002 that the subs were nuclear armed and that the single Fleet Commander stood in the way.
His widow narrated part of this and she remains very proud of him…..there was a meeting with the US officials inthe 2002 where this all came out…

wow - toooooo close….what a story I'm still shocked.....

This is a must watch...especially for any who lived through it......

Here's the longer story written better than my summary.

http://www.wnpt.org/mediaupdate/2012/10 ... the-world/

[FBM]

Meanwhile, another near-war goes largely unnoticed... http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 01087.html

[macdoc]

T'ain't the same.....but for one guy - we'd be in caves or all dead.

Korea is not that scale tho something has to give there.

[FBM]

No, I didn't mean to imply that. Just saying that a lot goes on over here that never makes it to foreign press, and sometimes it gets closer to war than you might think. That's all.

[Ian]

But the most frightening part of the whole crisis was this IMHO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Have you read Robert O'Connell's essay "Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" in Robert Crowley's What If? books? It's a great read about how everything could have spun out of control starting with a nuclear torpedo from one of the Soviet subs.

Ack! It's in the third volume - I only have the first two.

Plans a quick trip to the bookshops in the next couple of hours ...

Did you get the 3rd book?
If not, maybe you'd like a summary of the story...

[klr]

Not yet, but I'll wait for a couple of weeks to see if I can pick it up in some other bookshops. If not, I'll be back. Thanks for the offer.

BTW, any discussion of Vasili Arkhipov inevitably leads to Stanislav Petrov.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

There's a detailed (and very frightening) account of this incident in The Dead Hand by David Hoffman.

[Audley Strange]

Vasili Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov are amongst the greatest heroes of mankind. I have genuinely often wondered if the situation had been reversed and it was U.S. soldiers whether or not such potential destruction would have been averted.

[klr]

Vasili Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov are amongst the greatest heroes of mankind. I have genuinely often wondered if the situation had been reversed and it was U.S. soldiers whether or not such potential destruction would have been averted.

Agree wholeheartedly about Arkhipov and Petrov.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Thomas Blanton (then director of the National Security Archive) said in 2002, "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world".

I've wondered as well how others might have reacted in similar situations. Since we're all here sitting by our computers, I suppose it must be that:

* No incidents of a similar magnitude ever arose on the US side (or French, British, etc.) in the first place.
* They did arise, and the officers involved reacted the same way.
* Things were escalated up the chain of command before some senior military or political leaders got involved.

Who knows? A lot has to do with checks and balances at a given level, and going from one level up to the next. Arkhipov effectively vetoed his fellow officers where a unanimous decision was required by the top three officers.

Must refresh my memory on safety procedures for nuclear weapons authorisation over the years. Not a very cheerful subject at all ...