The Cuban Missile Crisis
Thirteen Days of Tension - The Cuban Missile CrisisThe Director of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) Arthur C. Lundahl squinted through a magnifying glass over a lighted table covered with photographs. The photographs were of landscapes taken from U-2 American spylanes some 14 miles above the ground of the island of Cuba. Pilot Richard S. Heyser had taken the photographs with the sophisticated equipment aboard U-2 Spylane 3101. The high-intensity cameras were able to pick up newspaper headlines from fourteen miles above the ground. Lundahl looked more closely at the photograph before him. There, on the ground near San Cristobal, Cuba, were six large canvas-covered objects lay near four long slash-marks in the ground. To the casual eye they would just appear as insignificant marks on the ground with six canvases that could be anything, but to the trained eye they were something more. Lundahl studied the photograph and the dimensions of the six objects and after careful comparison with other photographs and dimensions of wartime weapons he concluded that the objects were none other than the dreaded Soviet SS-4 MRICBM's - medium-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. Thes
Secrecy was most important in the next few weeks, as ExComm did not wish to inform the public, because chaos might ensue and people could become frightened. Lundahl picked up the phone of his office in the NPIC and immediately called the Secretary of State, Dean Rusk. But as soon as any moves were made toward Cuba that would put the American society in danger, the U. Fidel Castro was a young, hotheaded Cuban who decided to take over the country in total dictatorship in January of 1959. The Soviet Union planned to back him up in his scheme should the United States try to interfere. October 27, 1962A U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, killing the pilot. October 16, 1962These findings were not given to the president however, until the morning of the 16th. In August of 1961 the Berlin Wall was built, separating West Berlin and East Berlin because thousands of East Germans, seeking a better life in the west, had fled to West Germany. America could not provide air support to the exiles, for this would escalate into war with the Soviet Union, which might eventually lead to nuclear strikes. The ambassador to the Soviet Union, Anatoly Dobrynin assured Robert Kennedy, John's brother and the Attorney General, that there were absolutely no offensive missiles in Cuba nor would there ever be. So, if we blockaded Cuba, the Soviet Union would have had an excuse to attack us with nuclear weapons. In the end, options were narrowed down to two: a blockade to stop missiles from coming into Cuba or an air strike to get rid of the missiles. However, a "blockade" is defined as terms of war and a blockade of any country can be acted upon with force from that country or its allies. However, the photographs could not be analyzed until the next morning.
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