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The Soviets Send Missiles to Cuba:
"There will be no big reaction from the U.S. side."
-- Soviet defense minister on the expected U.S. response to the deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba
In January 1961, Khrushchev cited the Cuban Revolution as evidence "of the triumph of socialism and communism on a world scale." But the Caribbean island was both an asset and a vulnerability for the Soviet Union: Cuba's proximity to the United States made it well positioned to be a Soviet military base, but its distance from Moscow meant that Cuba would be hard for the Soviets to defend.
In spring 1962, Khrushchev gambled that the Soviet Union could secretly ship nuclear missiles to Cuba and deceive President Kennedy long enough so that the missiles could become operational. Historians still debate what ultimately prompted Khrushshev to take this huge risk. In his memoirs, Khrushchev gave two reasons, one defensive and one offensive: the defense of the Castro regime in Cuba, and a desire to put pressure on the Kennedy administration by dramatically changing the strategic balance of power. Fragmentary minutes of the Presidium (the Soviet Union's executive governing body), released only in 2002, suggest that initially, at least, the main reason was offensive.
On May 20, a Soviet delegation traveled to Cuba to propose the deployment of nuclear missiles to Cuban officials. On May 30, Castro, who was surprised by the offer, approved it. |