Cuban Missile Crisis

[R 105]

See Rule #14

[Hap]

PBS has 3 shows on their website about that era.  I was 5 years old, so memory is hazy.  Dad was at RAND at their DC office.  An uneasy time even for a kid who could understand it all.

[Skuzzy]

Ok, yet again, another topic heading into political discussion.  Posting political stuff will get you suspended from the board.  I should not have to remind anyone of this.

[zack1234]

They were not seen on transport ships, they were discovered being set up in Cuba by U-2 spy photos. 

Aside, detailed info on the Soviet Deception :  https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html

On board, the Soviets applied the same maskirovka measures that they had adopted when they first began to send weapons to Cuba. Packing crates or special shipping containers concealed and protected weapons carried as deck cargo. Certain telltale military equipment was boarded up with planks to make it look like the ship's superstructure. Even on-deck field kitchens were disguised.28 The Soviets shielded crated military hardware—such as missiles and launchers—with metal sheets to defeat infrared photography.29 They stored other combat and specialized equipment below, out of sight. Ordinary automobile
s, trucks, tractors, and harvesters were placed on the top deck to convey the impression that only civilian and agricultural gear was being transported.

In my history book it shows Russian transport ship with them uncoverved on the deck

When the Soviet union collapses the truth will be known

[Lusche]

When the Soviet union collapses the truth will be known

This will never happen, the people will not allow that! 

[Rich46yo]

In a nutshell this is what ended the Cuban missile crisis.


This does not include the huge stockpile of nukes in our bomber force, the weapons we had available on our CVs, the Polaris SSBNs "the soviets had no such subs at the time". Had the Soviets used one of those Cuban nukes they would have had to face an American retaliatory strike of about 3,500 weapons. They would have been out numbered in both nukes and yield by about 17 to their 1. In short they would have suffered less casualties shooting their own nukes at themselves then they would have at us. The strategic balance of forces is what ended the crisis.

And it was what started it. They thought they could equalize the game by putting IRBM and gravity weapons in Cuba. They had sent 40,000 troops as well to help protect the Island and the crisis ended up going hot. They shot at our reco aircraft and even downed a U-2.

The world was on the brink thats for sure.

[GScholz]

The Soviets had 57 ballistic missile submarines in 1962. They couldn't match the USN's Polaris subs, but still, the US seaboard would have been a radioactive wasteland...

[zack1234]

Who were they protecting the Cubans from?

[Nath[BDP]]

In a nutshell this is what ended the Cuban missile crisis.
(Image removed from quote.)

This does not include the huge stockpile of nukes in our bomber force, the weapons we had available on our CVs, the Polaris SSBNs "the soviets had no such subs at the time". Had the Soviets used one of those Cuban nukes they would have had to face an American retaliatory strike of about 3,500 weapons. They would have been out numbered in both nukes and yield by about 17 to their 1. In short they would have suffered less casualties shooting their own nukes at themselves then they would have at us. The strategic balance of forces is what ended the crisis.

And it was what started it. They thought they could equalize the game by putting IRBM and gravity weapons in Cuba. They had sent 40,000 troops as well to help protect the Island and the crisis ended up going hot. They shot at our reco aircraft and even downed a U-2.

The world was on the brink thats for sure.

[zack1234]

So Jupiter Missiles in Turkey were nothing to do with it?(American Nuclear missiles)

The Jupiter missiles were removed a year after Crisis

[morfiend]

PBS has 3 shows on their website about that era.  I was 5 years old, so memory is hazy.  Dad was at RAND at their DC office.  An uneasy time even for a kid who could understand it all.

  Thanks Hap,you've managed to make me feel suddenly....

   I indeed remember this,up here in Canada we didn't do the duck and cover drills,we did "fire drills".



   


   

[Rich46yo]

The Soviets had 57 ballistic missile submarines in 1962. They couldn't match the USN's Polaris subs, but still, the US seaboard would have been a radioactive wasteland...

Some had 1st Gen cruise missiles, the SS-N-3 which only had a range of 150 nm and probably would have been tasked with taking out CVs. Or trying to.

The rest were several classes of "noisy" boats that only had 3 SS-N-4 missiles, again relatively short range "350 nm" compared the Polaris system which had 3 times the range, each boat carrying 16 missiles. Like US Air Defense USN ASW defense was far superior to anything the Soviets had. Its unlikely any Soviet bombers would have gotten thru and no Soviet missile submarines were in the area. So they had about 320 strategic weapons capable of hitting America and about all but 50 delivered by bombers that probably wouldnt get thru.

I agree the damage done to us would have been unacceptable. But looking at it from their point of view they must have wondered what in Hell they got themselves into. This of course was the main motivation for their huge strategic arms build up in the 'late '60s and '70s. The Yom Kippur War in '73 was another scarey time, tho not quite as bad. Had we not given the Israelis all those advanced weapons they may have launched which would have triggered another Super Power confrontation.

[Rich46yo]

So Jupiter Missiles in Turkey were nothing to do with it?(American Nuclear missiles)

The Jupiter missiles were removed a year after Crisis

It was a face saving gesture to give to the Soviets so yeah it had "something". But these missiles were out dated anyways, there were only 15 in Turkey, and besides they were easy targets for the Soviets to take out should they want to. Besides with Polaris SSBNs active the Jupiters werent really needed for NATO defense since America/NATO had such a huge nuclear advantage over the Reds at the time. There were other NATO nukes in Turkey, and eventually B61 bombs and JABOs to deliver them. So removing 15 Jupiters didnt really change anything.

Of far more importance was the American garuntee not! to invade Cuba should the Reds remove their nukes.

[guncrasher]

The guy who saved the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

there's a few more who saved the world.

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


semp

[Stellaris]

My dad could have beaten up your dad, back in 1962.