Originally posted by weaselsan
You are right about Kennedy removing the missles from Turkey, but they where added as a sweetner to the deal to allow Kruschev to save face.
Well, how do you think of an offer "to save face" followed by the requirement not to disclose the agreement about missiles in Turkey?...
Anecdotal things about Carribean crisis (here it's called "Carribean crisis"):
1) When K. visited Bulgaria, he was taken to Turkish border and shown where US missiles are based. He, as usually, went nuts, pulled out a map and said that an equal threat will be sending missiles to Cuba. I don't know if that US missiles were in European Turkey, but for a mere-mind like K it was enough to understand that Turkey is very-very close to us.
2) It all happened during a K's "missile bluff". People old enough should remember that after Sputnik K declared that R-7 missiles are on conwayor "like sausages", and US leaders believed it. It ended up in SAC bombers on CAP 24/7 over Europe with megatons on board, while we could burn down only a few US areas in a retaliation strike. I don't know exactly how many R-7 launch facilities we had in 1962, but I think we still use all of them for space launches. Also, please, note that US plans of total war against USSR were not a secret.
3) A "missile deal" was a great success of the USSR. As usual, we lost in propaganda field, but we removed a deadly threat to Ukraine and our allies in Eastern Europe. We didn't have a full-scale ABM system even in development by that time, only experiments (like US NMD programm now). OTOH - PVO system was already quite capable, and B-52s invading Soviet airspace could meet some unpleasant surprises. With estimated 50% loss ratio for nuclear bombers projected in early-50s without knowing true PVO capabilities it could mean that B-52s could be nothing more then easy targets. First SAM victory in history happened in October 1959 over China, and US didn't know anything about Soviet SAMs until May Day 1961.
So, we lost an opportunity to retaliate against US attack, but OTOH we removed a vital threat to our cities and guaranteed independance of Cuba, still using it as an "unsinkable carrier" and radio observation base until late-90s.
Some personal things: During that time my Mother's family was on a vacation in GDR, Grandfather was immediately returned to duty, he was a commander of a "portable rocket-technical base". His unit stored nuclear warheads and fuel for operational-tactial missiles (something like "Scud"), he served in Germany in 1957-66 IIRC.
