The 50th Anniversary of The Cuban Missile Crisis

The 50th Anniversary of The Cuban Missile Crisis

Fifty years ago on Oct. 15, 1962, U.S. intelligence workers analyzing photos taken by a U-2 spy plane discovered that the Soviet Union was building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. Seven days later, President John F. Kennedy gave a televised address to announce the discovery to Americans and to proclaim that he was ordering a naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting offensive weapons to the islands. The President made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace.”

For the next 13 days, Americans believed that nuclear war with the Soviet Union–a war that would leave major U.S. cities like Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles incinerated–was about to break out any second.

The discovery of missile sites was actually the culmination of a dance that had been taking place for some time between the Soviets and the Americans.  The United States had deployed nuclear missiles all around the Soviet Union, most threateningly in Turkey. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro was worried about an American invasion of Cuba. He requested that the Soviet Union place nuclear missiles in Cuba, thinking that this would prevent an invasion.

On October 14, 1962, an American U-2 spying on Cuba spotted the missile installations. U.S. President John F. Kennedy was informed, and a debate as to how to react ensued among the American leadership.  Most of Kennedy's advisers wanted to invade Cuba immediately or bomb the missile sites.  Kennedy objected to this.  In since declassified tapes of the conversation, Kennedy stated his opinion that the missiles added nothing to the Soviet's military capabilities.

  

Kennedy used the crisis as a political tool.  His approach was one of strength and resoluteness towards the nuclear threat.  About a week after spotting the missile sites, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba.  This was meant to prevent ships with more missiles from reaching the island.  At the same time, the US brought its nuclear arsenal to full wartime readiness.

At this time, I was in the Air Force and stationed at Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico.   Ramey AFB was one of many Strategic Air Command bases, most of which were located in the Unites States.

The Strategic Air Command kept a few B52s(with nuclear weapons) in the air 24 hours a day 7 days a week during the cold war years.  During the missile crises that number was far more than a few.  In fact, I would estimate that at least 25% of all B52s assigned to SAC were kept in the air 24x7 during those infamous days in October.   Keeping that many aircraft in the air requires a lot of man-hours, needless to say, we were all working almost around the clock.

On October 25^th, President Kennedy gave The Soviet Union 24 hours to begin removing the missiles from Cuba or face an attack.   At that point, the U.S. Military alert level was set to "DEFCON 2", which was the highest ever in U.S. history.   Twenty-four hours later, American B52 bombers, with nuclear bombs aboard, flew past their turnaround points and entered Soviet airspace.   At that point, to avoid a nuclear war, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles, if the United States will promise to never invade Cuba and to remove some of our missiles from Turkey.  The U.S. agreed, and called back all the bombers.  That no-invasion (of Cuba) promise is still in effect to this day.

The next day an American U-2 was again spotted over Cuba. It was shot down, leading to the crisis' only casualty. The situation was very delicate to say the least.  Had American forces invaded, a nuclear war would likely have started. The Soviets placed short range nuclear missiles in Cuba that probably would have been used on the invaders to defend the island.  Kennedy had promised that a nuclear attack from Cuba would be interpreted as a nuclear attack by the USSR, meaning that such a Cuban attack could have lead to full-scale nuclear war. 

There are some America should have learned from this near fatal confrontation.  The Soviets had come to believe that Kennedy was a weak President because of the bungled “Bay of Pigs” invasion.  I think all he was really trying to do was to enhance his own political image back home.  It backfired and Khrushchev lost his job.

America can never afford to appear weak.  Not now, not EVER.  As President Reagan said—we have never been attacked because we were too strong.

Unfortunately, we have a President in power today who is projecting the unmistakable signal of a weak President.  All one has to do is look around the world at the mischief the lack of strong leadership from the US President during the last four years has allowed.

I offer this today for you to consider as we approach election day.  America, indeed, the world, must have strong leadership.  A weak US President is an invitation to disaster.  Remember the Carter administration? Well, now the Obama administration has been added to that list.

America’s enemies are on the rise.  We need a President with some backbone who will go toe to toe with them and not blink.  We do NOT need a “flexible” President.

Remember this when you go to the polls November 6th.