The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War

In October 1962, when the Soviet Union deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War ensued, bringing the world close to the brink of nuclear war. Over two tense weeks, U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev managed to negotiate a peaceful resolution to what was nearly a global catastrophe.

Drawing on the best recent scholarship and previously unexamined documents from the archives of the former Soviet Union, this introductory volume examines the motivations and calculations of the major participants in the conflict, sets the crisis in the context of the broader history of the global Cold War, and traces the effects of the crisis on subsequent international and regional geopolitical relations.

Selections from twenty primary sources provide firsthand accounts of the frantic deliberations and  *realpolitik*  diplomacy between the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and Fidel Castro's Cuban regime; thirteen illustrations are also included.

**CONTENTS:**

**Introduction:** The Making of a global Crisis

The Origins of the Cold War

A New Front in the Cold War

The Cold War in Latin America

The Cuban Revolution and the Soviet Union

U.S. and Regional Responses to the Cuban Revolution

Operation Zapata: The Bay of Pigs

Operation Anadyr: Soviet Missiles in Cuba

Crisis Dénouement: The Missiles of November

Evaluating the Leadership on All Sides of the Crisis

Nuclear Fallout: Consequences of the Missile Crisis

The Future of Cuban-Soviet Relations

Latin American Responses to the Missile Crisis

Conclusion: Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Historiography of the Cuban Missile Crisis

**Documents**

Memorandum for McGeorge Bundy from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., April 10, 1961

State Department White Paper, April 1961

From the Cable on the Conversation between Gromyko and Kennedy, October 18, 1962

Telegram from Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko to the CC CPSU, October 20, 1962

President John F. Kennedy’s speech to the Nation, October 22, 1962

Resolution Adopted by the Council of the Organization of American States Acting Provisionally as the Organ of Consultation, October 23, 1962

Message from Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos to Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós, October 23, 1962

Letter from Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy, October 24, 1962

Telegram from Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to the USSR MFA, October 24, 1962

Memorandum for President Kennedy from Douglas Dillon, October 26, 1962

Telegram from Fidel Castro to N.S. Khrushchev, October 26, 1962

Letter from Khrushchev to Fidel Castro, October 28, 1962

Cable from USSR Ambassador to Cuba Alekseev to Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October 28, 1962

Telegram from Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Kuznetsov and Ambassador to the U.N. Zorin to USSR Foreign Ministry (1), October 30, 1962

Premier Khrushchev’s Letter to Prime Minister Castro, October 30, 1962

Prime Minister Castro’s Letter to Premier Khrushchev, October 31, 1962

Meeting of the Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba with Mikoyan in the Presidential Palace, November 4, 1962

Brazilian Foreign Ministry Memorandum, “Question of Cuba,” November 20, 1968

Letter from Khrushchev to Fidel Castro, January 31, 1963

“I Know Something About the Caribbean Crisis,” Notes from a Conversation with Fidel Castro, November 5, 1987

*Select Bibliography*