Page 137 - NS-2 Textbook

130 MARITIME HISTORY

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS "Well, it looks as if everything is in the hands of the
Navy,n
As potentially explosive as the incidents between the Admiral Anderson replied, "Mr. President, the Navy
U.S. and communism in the late 1940s and 1950s were, will not let you down."
the 1962 Cuban missile crisis was the most dangerous of The next evening, 21 Octobel~ the president V\Tent on
all cold war crises to that date. It was a direct confronta- national television and told the American people and the
tion between the United States and the Soviet Union. world that the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba.
On 14 October 1962 high-flying U-2 reconnaissance He announced that "a strict quarantine of all offensive
aircraft on photographic intelligence missions positively equipment ,mder shipment to Cuba is being initiated,"
identified Soviet ICBM launching pads IUlder construc- and that ally ship bound for Cuba carrying such cargo
tion in Fidel Castro's Cuba. Earlier photographs had would be met by the US. Navy alld turned back. By 24
shown surface-to-air missile batteries being erected and October over 180 Navy ships 'were involved in the oper-
Soviet-flag freighters laden with electronic geal; con- ation, establishing a quarantine line on an arc 500 miles
struction equipmentf and even suspected crated lllissiles to the east of Cuba. Naval vessels and aircraft continu-
being unloaded in Cuban ports. With proof of the ICBM ously conducted reconnaissance missions over and
sites confirmed, it became obvious that the Soviets were aroUlld the island.
trying to overcome the superiority of America's Polaris Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev branded the U.S.
lnissile submarines by placing the majority of American charges as lies and ,yarned that if Alnerica carried out
cities well within the 2,200-mile range of Soviet missiles. any act of Upiracy," the Soviet Union ,vould react accord-
President Kennedy had only two choices: do noth- ingly. Work on the missile sites continued. Thirty thou-
ing, and make the United States vulnerable to Soviet nu- sand US. marines embarked in amphibious ships near
clear blackmail, or force the Soviets to remove the mis- Cuba made preparations to invade the island. Intelli-
siles, even at the threat of nuclear war. After an agonizing gence reported that hventy-five Soviet ships were on
appraisal of the alternatives, the president called upon their way to Cuba and nearing the quar-antine line. The
the US. Navy to establish a quarantine (a type of selec- question was, would they turn back, would they have to
tive blockade) of Cuba. Having made the decision, the be boarded and captured, or would they have to be
president told Admiral George Anderson, then CNO, SlUlk? Tension rose. War seemed only hours away.

A Navy patrol plane and destroyer intercept a Soviet merchant ship during the Cuban quarantine in 1962.