A U.S. Air Force surveillance flight over Cuba in October 1962 turned up evidence of what U.S. officials had feared: the Soviet Union was installing nuclear-armed missiles on the island. The discovery triggered a thirteen-day crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. President John F. Kennedy initially favored air strikes to take out the missile sites before they became operational. As a first step, he ordered a naval quarantine, or blockade, of Cuba. But worried about escalation to the unthinkable, he pursued backchannel communications with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that ended the crisis. Alarmed by how close they had come to nuclear Armageddon, Kennedy and Khrushchev subsequently negotiated several agreements that lowered tensions between their two capitals and opened the door to the arms-control era. SHAFR historians ranked JFK\u2019s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis as the tenth-best U.S. foreign policy decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A U.S. Air Force surveillance flight over Cuba in October 1962 turned up evidence of what U.S. officials had feared: the Soviet Union was installing nuclear-armed missiles on the island. The discovery triggered a thirteen-day crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. President John F. Kennedy initially favored air strikes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1303,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-decisions"],"acf":{"add_section":[{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"U.S.-Soviet Tensions","add_section_content":"Tensions with the Soviet Union ran high when Kennedy took office in January 1961. There were numerous potential flashpoints between the two nuclear powers. One, however, lay close to U.S. shores: Cuba, where Fidel Castro had seized power in 1959. Opposed to U.S. dominance of the island, he courted Moscow\u2019s support. In January 1961, just before leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Three months later, Kennedy authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA-orchestrated plan to oust Castro. The Bay of Pigs was a debacle and raised doubts at home and abroad about JFK\u2019s readiness to be president.\r\n\r\nKennedy hoped to repair the damage and lessen U.S.-Soviet tensions by meeting Khrushchev in June 1961. The Vienna Summit, however, was another disaster. After it ended, Kennedy told a reporter it had been the \u201cworst thing in my life. He savaged me.\u201d Khrushchev, by comparison, believed he had intimidated his younger and far less experienced counterpart. Two months later, the Soviet leader ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall. Tensions between the two superpowers flared.","add_image":1546,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Missiles in Cuba","add_section_content":"By summer 1962, U.S. intelligence officials suspected that the Soviets were shipping medium-range ballistic missiles to Cuba, putting much of the eastern United States, including Washington, DC, at the risk of destruction with little notice. Kennedy warned on September 4 that the United States would not tolerate offensive weapons in Cuba. Two weeks later, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko spoke at the United Nations and denied that Moscow was sending weapons to Cuba that could threaten the United States. Concerned about Soviet arms flowing to the island, Congress passed a resolution on October 3 declaring that the United States would \u201cprevent by whatever means may be necessary, including the use of arms,\u201d Cuba\u2019s acquisition of weapons \u201cendangering the security of the United States.\u201d\r\n\r\nU.S. officials soon had their worst fears confirmed. On Sunday, October 14, 1962, a U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba. The 928 photographs it took in its 6-minute run through Cuban airspace were sent to the Naval Photographic Interpretation Center in Maryland. Staff there worked throughout the night to develop the photos. By late afternoon on Monday, October 15, analysts concluded that medium-range Soviet missiles, presumably equipped (or ready to be equipped) with nuclear warheads, were in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis began.","add_image":1577,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The ExCom Meets","add_section_content":"Kennedy was sitting in his White House bedroom in his pajamas reading the newspaper on Tuesday morning when his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, informed him that the Soviets were installing missiles in Cuba. Kennedy decided to stick to his morning schedule while Bundy arranged for the administration's national security team to meet at the White House.\r\n\r\nKennedy met with the group, known as the Executive Committee, or ExCom for short, just before noon. An immediate decision was made to order more U-2 surveillance flights over Cuba. The conversation then turned to how the United States should respond to the Soviet provocation. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara raised the possibility of blockading Cuba, but much of the discussion focused on air strikes against missile installations. The possibility that the United States might strike first troubled Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He passed a note to his brother saying, \u201cI now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor.\u201d\r\n\r\nPresident John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Discuss Military Options for Cuba, October 16, 1962.<\/strong>\r\n