POSITION PAPER – CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Directions
Using information from the documents and resources listed below, as well as your previous knowledge of
the subject, prepare a position paper that answers the question below. This question will also serve as the
basis for a Socratic Seminar at the end of the unit.
Question
To what extent were the Soviet Union and the United States equally responsible for bringing the world to
the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Document A
Source: Public Papers of the President of the United States, John E Kennedy: pp. 807-808
(October 22, 1962).
"Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security and of the entire Western Hemisphere,
I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately:
First: To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under
shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port
will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended,
if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of
life, as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin Blockade in 1948.
Second.- I have directed the continued and increased [aerial] surveillance of Cuba and its military
buildup.
Third.- It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any
nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full
retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
Fourth: As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced our base at Guantanamo [Cuba],
evacuated today the dependents of our personnel there, and ordered additional military units to be on a
standby alert basis.
Fifth: We are calling tonight for an immediate meeting of the Organ of Consultation under the
Organization of American States, to consider this threat to hemispheric security. . . . Our other allies
around the world have also been alerted.
Sixth: Under the Charter of the United Nations, we are asking tonight that an emergency meeting of the
Security Council be convoked without delay to take action against this latest Soviet threat to world peace.
Our resolution will call for the prompt dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons in Cuba,
under the supervision of U.N. observers, before the quarantine can be lifted.
Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and
provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations. I call upon him further
to abandon this course of world domination, and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race
and to transform the history of man."
Document B
Letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy Source: Department of State Bulletin 47 (November 12, 1962): 742.
"Our purpose has been and is to help Cuba, and no one can challenge the humanity of our motives aimed
at allowing Cuba to live peacefully and develop as its people desire. You want to relieve your country
from danger and this is understandable. However, Cuba also wants this. All countries want to relieve
themselves from danger. But how can we, the Soviet Union and our government, assess your actions
which, in effect, mean that you have surrounded the Soviet Union with military bases, surrounded our
allies with military bases, set up military bases literally around our country, and stationed your rocket
weapons at them? This is no secret. High placed American officials demonstratively declare this. Your
rockets are stationed in Britain and in Italy and pointed at us. Your rockets are stationed in Turkey. You
are worried over Cuba. You say that it worries you because it lies at a distance of 90 miles across the
shores of the United States. However, Turkey lies next to us. Our sentinels are pacing up and down and
watching each other. Do you believe that you have the right to demand security for your country and the
removal of such weapons that you qualify as offensive, while not recognizing this right for us?. . . . This
is why I make this proposal: We agree to do this and to state this commitment in the United Nations.
Your representatives will make a statement to the effect that the United States, on its part,. . . .will
evacuate its analogous weapons from Turkey. Let us reach an understanding on what time you and we
need to put this into effect."
Document C
John F. Kennedy reply to Khrushchev. Source: Department of State Bulletin 47 (November 12, 1962):
743.
Dear Mr. Chairman:
I have read your letter of October 26th with great care and welcomed the statement of your desire to seek
a prompt solution to the problem. The first thing that needs to be done, however, is for work to cease on
offensive missile in Cuba and for all weapons systems in Cuba capable of offensive use to be rendered
inoperable, under effective United Nations arrangements. Assuming this is done promptly, I have given
my representatives in New York instructions that will permit them to work out this weekend-in
cooperation with the Acting Secretary General and your representative-an arrangement for a permanent
solution to the Cuban problem along the lines suggested in your letter of October 26th.
If you will give your representative similar instructions, there is no reason why we should not be able to
complete these arrangements and announce them to the world within a couple of days. "
Document D
Commentary in the official Soviet newspaper Izvestia Source: The Current Digest of the Soviet Press,
published weekly at The Ohio State University.
"The threat to peace was created by hostile, adventurist schemes aimed at the very existence of the Cuban
Republic. The Soviet Union could not disregard Cuba's predicament in the face of the imperialistic
provocations. Our country, fulfilling its international duty, came to the fraternal assistance of the Cuban
people, and in these troubled days of the provocational aggravation. . . . it has stood, stands, and will
continue to stand firmly with Cuba.
The progression of events showed that the far-seeing, wise course of the Soviet government was the only
correct one in the situation that had developed and led in a short time to the start of the normalization
of the situation and the creation of conditions in which the interests of universal peace and of the. . . .
integrity of the Cuban Republic will be assured.
Thus reason and wisdom prevailed. At present, all conditions exist for the total elimination of the
conflict and for further efforts toward the strengthening of peace and security. All honest people,
anxious over the fate of peace, render their due to our Communist Party, to the Soviet government
and to Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev for the fact that the forces of aggression and war have been
restrained and reason in international relations has prevailed over folly.
These days telegrams are being received in Moscow, in the Kremlin, from all corners of the globe.
They express the impassioned voices of people of good will, conveying their support of the peace
loving position of the Soviet Union. . . . "
Document E
Fidel Castro. Source: Radio and Television speech to the Cuban people, 22 October 1962.
"If they blockade our country they will exalt our nation, because we will resist. . . . We are part of
humanity and we run the necessary risks, yet, we are not afraid. We must learn how to live in our allotted
times and with the dignity with which we know to live. Everybody, men and women, young and old, we
are all one in this moment of danger."
Document F
The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press.
"The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, was a major Cold War confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union. Following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the USSR secretly began building missile launching sites in
Cuba. After the construction was detected by U.S. reconnaissance flights, U.S. President Kennedy
demanded (Oct. 22) the withdrawal of the missiles, and imposed a naval blockade on Cuba. The Soviets
agreed (Oct. 28) to dismantle the missile sites, and the crisis ended as suddenly as it had begun."
Document G
Havana, October 26, 1962. Fidel Castro. Source: Blight, James G., Cuba on the Brink. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1993.
Dear Comrade Khrushchev:
“From an analysis of the situation and the reports in our possession, I consider that the aggression is
almost imminent within the next 24 or 72 hours. There are two possible variants: the first and likeliest one
is an air attack against certain targets with the objective of destroying them; the second, less probable
although possible, is invasion. . . . this variant would call for a large number of forces and it is, in
addition, the most repulsive form of aggression. The morale of the Cuban people is extremely high and
the aggressor will be confronted heroically.
If the second variant is implemented and the imperialists invade Cuba with the goal of occupying it, the
danger that that aggressive policy poses of humanity is so great that following that event the Soviet Union
must never allow the circumstances in which the imperialists could launch the first nuclear strike against
it. It has influenced my opinion to see how this aggressive policy is developing, how the imperialists,
disregarding world public opinion and ignoring principles and the law, are blockading the seas, violating
our airspace and preparing an invasion, while at the same time frustrating every possibility for talks,
even though they are aware of the seriousness of the problem.
. . . . up to the last moment we will maintain the hope that peace will be safeguarded and we are willing
to contribute to this as much as we can.”
Document K
October 28, 1962 N. Khrushchev Source: Blight, James G., Cuba on the Brink. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1993.
Dear Comrade Fidel Castro:
"Our October 27 message to President Kennedy allows for the question to be settled in your favor, to
defend Cuba from an invasion and prevent war from breaking out. Kennedy's reply, which you
apparently also know, offers assurances that the United States will not invade Cuba with its own forces,
nor will it permit its allies to carry out an invasion.
I would like to advise you in a friendly manner to show patience, firmness and even more firmness.
Naturally, if there's an invasion it will be necessary to repulse it by every means. But we mustn't allow
ourselves to be carried away by provocations, because the Pentagon's unbridled militarists, now that the
solution to the conflict is in sight and apparently in your favor, creating a guarantee against the invasion
of Cuba, are trying to frustrate the agreement and provoke you into actions that could be used against
you. I ask you not to give them the pretext for doing that.
On our part, we will do everything possible to stabilize the situation in Cuba, defend Cuba against
invasion and assure you the possibilities for peacefully building a socialist society."
Document H
Robert McNamara Source: Sharnik, John, Inside the Cold War. New York: Arbor House, 1987.
"He [Kennedy] instructed us to meet-sometimes with him, sometimes without him, until we had
determined on a course of action we were prepared to recommend to him, and not under any
circumstances to make public the knowledge we had that these Soviet missiles had been introduced into
Cuba until he made his decision. There was great division as to whether we should essentially follow a
military course that would involve an attack on Cuba.
It is very unlikely that the political leaders of the Soviet Union would ever have authorized a nuclear
response to a U.S. air attack and/or ground attack on Cuba. However, it was highly probable that they
would authorize some other form of military response: attacks on the flanks- Norway, Turkey, for
example, attacks on the central front of NATO [i.e., Germany].
[And] in the face of an air attack [on Cuba] and in the face of the probability of a ground, it was certainly
possible, and I would say probable, that a Cuban sergeant or Soviet officer in a missile silo, without
authority from Moscow, would have launched one or more those intermediate-range missiles, equipped
with a nuclear warhead, against one or more of the cities on the East Coast of the United States. They
could have hit Miami. They could have hit Washington. They could have hit New York. "
Document I
General Anatoli I. Gribkov Source: Gribkov/Smith. Operation ANADYR. Chicago: Edition q, inc. 1994.
“My main goal was to convince the other participants that the purpose of Operation ANADYR was
defensive. That was the gist of the specific articles I cited from August 1962 Cuban-Soviet agreement,
provisions that referred to the urgent necessity of taking measures to ensure mutual security against
possible aggression against the Cuban Republic and the Soviet Union.
As the person who executed the main planning documents of Operation ANADYR, I assimilated one
point very firmly: the missiles were deployed for the purpose of deterring U.S. aggression against Cuba.
Khrushchev emphasized that the Soviet Union would never be an aggressor and would never be the first
to use nuclear weapons. Because of the secrecy of the missile deployment, however, Westerners doubted
Khrushchev's sincerity. The 1962 crisis, with all its unpredictability, could have been avoided-or at least
made less acute-if he had acted straightforwardly. Under public treaties and agreements with the Cuban
government, the Soviet Union could have gradually and openly transferred weapons, hardware, and
military units. The United States would certainly have resisted those deployments fiercely, but the
struggle would have been a diplomatic and political one, not a military confrontation carrying the risk of
nuclear war."
Document J
Document L
Document K
Document M