The Cuban Missile Crisis The Part They Didn't Tell You In October 1962, the world came frighteningly close to a nuclear war. The event is remembered as the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War. The usual story is familiar, the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the United States discovered them, President John F. Kennedy confronted Nikita Khrushchev, and the Soviet Union finally removed the missiles. The crisis is often presented as a clear American victory.<span class="PDq2pG_selectionAnchor"></span> But that version leaves out an important part of the story. Before the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the United States had already placed its own nuclear missiles in Turkey, close to the Soviet border. Those missiles became an important part of the secret negotiations that ended the crisis. To understand what happened in Cuba, we have to go back a little. The missiles in Turkey During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a struggle for military and political power. Both countries built huge nuclear arsenals, and both looked for ways to place weapons closer to the other side. In 1961, the United States deployed <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter nuclear missiles</a> in Turkey, a <a href="https://www.nato.int/en">NATO</a> member located directly on the Soviet Union's southern border. These missiles could reach Soviet targets, giving the United States a nuclear weapon system much closer to Soviet territory. From Washington's point of view, the missiles were part of the defense of <a href="https://www.nato.int/en">NATO</a>. From Moscow's point of view, they were a direct threat. The Soviet leadership was especially concerned because the missiles could reach important targets inside the Soviet Union with relatively little warning. But it is an important part of the background that is often missing from the popular version of the crisis. There was also another major problem between the United States and Cuba. Cuba becomes America's problem In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba after overthrowing the government of Fulgencio Batista. Relations between Castro's government and the United States quickly became hostile. Cuba moved closer to the Soviet Union, while Washington became increasingly worried about having a Soviet-friendly government so close to the American mainland. The United States did not simply sit and watch these developments. In April 1961, the Kennedy administration supported the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban exiles attempted to overthrow Castro. The operation ended in disaster and became a major embarrassment for the United States. But the failure did not end American efforts against Castro. The Kennedy administration later launched Operation Mongoose, a secret program involving covert operations designed to kill Fidel Castro and weaken the Cuban government. The Soviet missiles arrive in Cuba In 1962, the Soviet Union secretly began moving nuclear missiles to Cuba. Khrushchev had several goals. He wanted to protect Castro from another American invasion, strengthen the Soviet position in the Cold War, and respond to the American nuclear presence in Turkey. <b>There was also a simple strategic calculation. If the United States could place nuclear missiles close to the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union could do the same to the United States.</b> Cuba was an ideal location for this purpose. It was only about 90 miles from Florida. The Soviet operation was carried out in secret, but the secrecy did not last. On October 14, an American U-2 spy plane photographed the missile sites being built in Cuba. The photographs were analyzed in Washington, and the Kennedy administration realized that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear weapons on the island. The United States now faced a terrible choice. Kennedy's advisers discussed several possibilities, including a military strike and a full invasion of Cuba. Either option could have triggered a direct war with the Soviet Union. Kennedy eventually chose a naval quarantine of Cuba. American forces would stop Soviet ships carrying military equipment from reaching the island while Washington demanded the removal of the missiles. The world watched as American and Soviet forces moved closer to confrontation. What the public did not know This is where the story becomes much more complicated. While Kennedy was publicly demanding that Khrushchev remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba, American officials were also dealing with a problem they did not want to discuss publicly, the American <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> in Turkey. Khrushchev knew about those missiles. He considered them a serious threat to the Soviet Union and saw the Soviet missiles in Cuba as a way to change the balance. As the crisis became more dangerous, the Soviet government proposed a deal. The Soviet missiles would leave Cuba if the United States removed its <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> from Turkey. For Kennedy, accepting such a deal publicly was politically dangerous. It could make it look as though the United States had been forced to give up its own nuclear weapons because of Soviet pressure. There was another problem. Turkey was a <a href="https://www.nato.int/en">NATO</a> ally, and the United States did not want the Turkish government to appear to be a victim of a secret deal between Washington and Moscow. So Kennedy chose another path. On October 27, 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy secretly met Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin in Washington. During the meeting, Robert Kennedy made clear that the United States was prepared to remove the <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> from Turkey. But there was a condition, the agreement could not be presented publicly as a trade. The next day, Khrushchev announced that the Soviet Union would remove its missiles from Cuba. The immediate crisis was over. And this USSR sacrifice is celebrated as an American victory. The secret agreement The public was told a much simpler story. The Soviet Union had put missiles in Cuba, Kennedy had stood firm, and Khrushchev had agreed to remove them. That was not the complete story. Behind the scenes, the United States had agreed to remove its <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> from Turkey. The agreement was kept secret because Kennedy did not want Americans, <a href="https://www.nato.int/en">NATO</a> allies, or the wider world to see the settlement as a direct exchange. The United States also publicly promised not to invade Cuba, another important part of the settlement. This meant that both sides gave something up. The Soviet Union removed its nuclear missiles from Cuba. The United States agreed to remove its <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> from Turkey and promised not to invade Cuba. The difference was that the Soviet withdrawal from Cuba became public immediately, while the Turkish missile agreement remained secret. The <a href="https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/jupiter/">Jupiter missiles</a> were eventually removed from Turkey in 1963. The United States presented their removal as part of a broader modernization of its nuclear forces. For years, the public did not have the full picture. Why was this kept secret? There was a clear political reason for the secrecy. Kennedy had just faced the most dangerous crisis of his presidency. If Americans learned that the United States had agreed to remove nuclear missiles from Turkey as part of the settlement, some would have seen the agreement as a concession to Khrushchev. Kennedy also had to protect America's relationship with Turkey and <a href="https://www.nato.int/en">NATO</a>. He did not want America's allies to believe that Washington could secretly trade away weapons stationed on their territory. Most importantly, Kennedy wanted the Soviet Union to remove the missiles from Cuba without creating the impression that the United States had been forced into a public retreat. The result was a carefully controlled public story. The Soviet Union had to remove its missiles from Cuba, and that became the visible outcome. The American withdrawal from Turkey happened quietly. Later, declassified documents and recordings revealed much more about what had happened behind the scenes. So, was it really a Cuban Missile Crisis? Historically, the name Cuban Missile Crisis is correct because the immediate confrontation centered on the Soviet missiles in Cuba. But calling it only a Cuban crisis can make the story sound much simpler than it really was. There were missiles in Cuba, but there were also American missiles in Turkey. There was a failed invasion of Cuba, secret American operations against Castro, Soviet military support for Cuba, and secret negotiations between Kennedy and Khrushchev. The crisis did not end simply because Khrushchev backed down. It ended through a private agreement in which both sides made concessions, although the public saw only part of that agreement. The history becomes even more interesting when we look at what the Kennedy administration chose not to tell the public. The missiles in Cuba were photographed by American spy planes and shown to the world. The missiles in Turkey were already there, but their role in the final settlement was kept out of the public story. That is why some historians and commentators have described the episode as a Cuban-Turkish missile crisis or argued that the Turkish missiles should receive much more attention when the crisis is taught. The real story is not simply that America won and the Soviet Union lost. It is a story about two nuclear powers that pushed each other to the edge of war, then quietly stepped back. And perhaps the most important fact is this, the world was shown one part of the deal, while the most politically sensitive part was kept secret for years.
