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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.10.10 17:33l 44 Lines 2045 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 14
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Oct 14, 1962:
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins on October 14, 1962, bringing the
United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear
conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane
offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range
missiles in Cuba_capable of carrying nuclear warheads_were now
stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba
had been steadily increasing since the failed April 1961 Bay of
Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the
United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the
government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed,
Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and
set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union.
During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose
to more than 20,000. Rumors began that Russia was also moving
missiles and strategic bombers onto the island. Russian leader
Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the
stakes in the Cold War for several reasons. He may have believed
that the United States was indeed going to invade Cuba and
provided the weapons as a deterrent. Facing criticism at home
from more hard-line members of the Soviet communist hierarchy, he
may have thought a tough stand might win him support. Khrushchev
also had always resented that U.S. nuclear missiles were
stationed near the Soviet Union (in Turkey, for example), and
putting missiles in Cuba might have been his way of redressing
the imbalance. Two days after the pictures were taken, after
being developed and analyzed by intelligence officers, they were
presented to President Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the
United States and the Soviet Union would come as close to nuclear
war as they ever had, and a fearful world awaited the outcome.
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