The Cuban Missile Crisis – On the brink of WWIII – Part I

 

Hello everybody! In this article, I’ll turn to a crucial historical moment of the 20^th century: the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This harsh confrontation between the USA and the USSR was something never seen before in the previous 20 years of the Cold War, and it was so serious, that humanity found itself on the brink of a nuclear war.

Let’s begin with a little bit of context, shall we?

-       Capitalism VS Communism

World War II ended on 2^nd September 1945, when the Empire of Japan formally signed its surrender to the Allies that found themselves establishing new balances of power.

While France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America had democratic governments and an economy based on free-marked capitalism, the Soviet Union was an authoritarian regime, with an economy based on Marxist communism. 

These differences made an alliance, let alone a compromise between the two political-economic systems impossible.

Tensions began to rise, and the United States adopted a geopolitical strategy known as “containment” to prevent the spread of communism.

The world was divided into a Western Bloc, controlled by the United States and Western Europe powers, some of which formed a military alliance known as “NATO” (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and an Eastern one, guided by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

-       The ballistic missile

Soon, the two main superpowers started to confront each other on a scientific and technological level, to prove their superiority.

Beginning in 1945, the US and the USSR rushed to acquire as much technology of the former Nazi Germany as possible.

The USSR was able to obtain control of several V-2 (the first ballistic missile, developed by Nazi Germany) production facilities and to capture some of the scientists and engineers related to the project.

 

“An R-5 Poebda (Victory) on display”

In the following years, the Soviets acquired nuclear capabilities and developed their first medium range ballistic missile (MRBM), the R-5 Poebda, capable of carrying a 1 megaton thermonuclear warhead, and the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7 Semyorka, powerful enough to attack the United States.

 

“An R-7 Semyorka on display”

  On the other hand, in 1946 with Operation Paperclip, the US acquired many V-2s and recruited Nazi Germany’s lead rocket engineer Wernher Von Braun and his team.

The US started developing their first ICMBs, which also represented the basis of their space program.

Infact, the derivatives of the MRBM PGM-11 “Redstone”, used to launch America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, became the basis of the Saturn Rockets that eventually led to Saturn V, the rocket that took mankind on the moon.

 

“A PGM-11 Redstone”

   

-       The space race

Clearly, ICBM technology could also be applied to space exploration.

Nations capable of launching payloads into orbit, would also be able to place numerous nuclear or even thermonuclear warheads in orbit.

So, space became an indicator of a nation’s economic wealth and technological progress, thus demonstrating the superiority of that nation’s ideology.

The first great step was made by the USSR: in 1957, the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, starting the space race.

 

“A replica of Sputnik 1”

The event sparked chaos in the Western Bloc: the US feared the satellite could be used to detect classified communications and it also undermined the US’s assumption of superior technology and obviously, missilistic capabilities.

To avoid further Soviets’ milestones, the US responded by developing the Explorer Program (the afore-mentioned Explorer 1 was launched in January 1958, 4 months after Sputnik-1), and creating NASA, with the National Aeronautics and Space Act, signed in July 1958 by President Eisenhower.

The real arms race had also begun.

-       The prelude to the crisis

At the beginning of the 1960s, the rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union escalated to alarming levels.

The USSR mistakenly believed to possess missile superiority over the US (“missile gap”).

In 1959, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, declared that the Soviet Union was producing 250 ICBMs per month, while it possessed 4 R-7 ICBMs, which were slow and vulnerable to preventive measures.

 

“CPUS’ General Secretary Nikita Khruschev”

However, the possibility of the USAF bomber fleet being destroyed by a sudden nuclear attack convinced the Eisenhower administration to improve their missile armament.

By the end of 1959, the US had placed 30 MRBM launch sites in Southern Italy and another 15 in Turkey.

When John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1961, the US possessed 170 ICBMs, while the USSR had only 25 and their MRBMs, about 700, were unable to reach American territory.

The US also had nuclear superiority, with 27.000 warheads against 3.600.

 

John F. Kennedy photographed in the Oval Office, 1963

Khrushchev considered Kennedy to be politically immature and kept pursuing soviet claims in European territory.

 

John F. Kennedy meeting Nikita Khruschev in Vienna, 1961

 In June 1961, the Soviet Union caused the Berlin Crisis by requiring the withdrawal of all armed forces from Berlin.

The Crisis was resolved with the construction of a barrier, the infamous Berlin Wall, which isolated the Western sector.  But there was also another place which was about to become the focus of US-USSR rivalry, or something much worse: Cuba.

That’s all I had for today’s article. In the next part we’re going to see what really happened in Cuba in 1962. See you soon.

Today's Blogger

Hello, world! I'm Edoardo Cignitti, a passionate enthusiast of computer science, physics, and aviation. I have an insatiable curiosity about the world and love understanding why things happen, which is why I'm particularly drawn to physics, with a keen interest in nuclear and quantum physics. I also have a soft spot for sci-fi films and enjoy playing board games. I'm excited to share my interests with you here on Let's Blog!