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This month marks the 63rd anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world dangerously close to thermonuclear war.
Several years ago, I read Rockets and People, the totally fascinating memoir of Soviet rocket developer Boris Chertok, which I reviewed here. Chertok’s career encompassed both military and space-exploration projects, and in late October 1962 he was focused on preparations for launching a Mars probe.
On the morning of Oct. 27, he was awakened by “a strange uneasiness.” After a quick breakfast, he headed for the missile assembly building, known as the MIK.
At the gatehouse, there was usually a lone soldier on duty who would give my pass a cursory glance. Now suddenly I saw a group of soldiers wielding sub-machine guns, and they thoroughly scrutinized my pass. Finally they admitted me to the facility grounds and there, to my surprise, I again saw sub-machine-gun-wielding soldiers who had climbed up the fire escape to the roof of the MIK. Other groups of soldiers in full combat gear, even wearing gas masks, were running about the periphery of the secure area. When I stopped in at the MIK, I immediately saw that the “duty” R-7A combat missile, which had always been covered and standing up against the wall, which we had always ignored, was uncovered.
Chertok was greeted by his friend Colonel Kirillov, who was in charge of this launch facility. Kirillov did not greet Chertok with his usual genial smile, but with a “somber, melancholy expression.”
Without releasing my hand that I’d extended for our handshake, he quietly said: “Boris Yevseyevich, I have something of urgent importance I must tell you”…We went into his office on the second floor. Here, visibly upset, Kirillov told me: “Last night I was summoned to headquarters to see the chief of the [Tyura-Tam] firing range. The chiefs of the directorates and commanders of the troop units were gathered there. We were told that the firing range must be brought into a state of battle readiness immediately. Due to the events in Cuba, air attacks, bombardment, and even U.S. airborne assaults are possible. All Air Defense Troops assets have already been put into combat readiness. Flights of our transport airplanes are forbidden. All facilities and launch sites have been put under heightened security. Highway transport is drastically restricted. But most important—I received the order to open an envelope that has been stored in a special safe and to act in accordance with its contents. According to the order, I must immediately prepare the duty combat missile at the engineering facility and mate the warhead located in a special depot, roll the missile out to the launch site, position it, test it, fuel it, aim it, and wait for a special launch command. All of this has already been executed at Site No. 31. I have also given all the necessary commands here at Site No. 2. Therefore, the crews have been removed from the Mars shot and shifted over to preparation of the combat missile. The nosecone and warhead will be delivered here in 2 hours.
Chertok, who at this point was apparently viewing the Cuban affair as a flash in the pan that would be resolved short of war, was concerned that moving the Mars rocket would cause them to miss their October 29 launch date, and suggested that the swap of the rockets be delayed for a few hours. Kirillov told him that this was impossible, and that he should go to the “Marshal’s cottage,” where some of his associates wanted to see him. Chertok’s response:
Yes, sir! You’re in charge! But, Anatoliy Semyonovich! Just between you and me do you have the courage to give the ‘Launch!’ command, knowing full well that this means not just the death of hundreds of thousands from that specific thermonuclear warhead, but perhaps the beginning of the end for everyone? You commanded a battery at the front, and when you shouted ‘Fire!’ that was quite another matter.
Kirillov:
There’s no need to torment me. I am a soldier now; I carry out an order just as I did at the front. A missile officer just like me, not a Kirillov, but some Jones or other, is standing at a periscope and waiting for the order to give the ‘Launch’ command against Moscow or our firing range. Therefore, I advise you to hurry over to the cottage.
At the cottage, four men were seated at a table playing cards while a fifth was trying to glean the latest news from a radio, and Lena, the housekeeper, was in the kitchen drying wine glasses. It was suggested that since Chertok didn’t like playing cards, he should help Lena fix the drinks. This involved a watermelon and lots of cognac.
I took the enormous watermelon and two bottles of cognac out of the fridge. When everything was ready, we heard a report that U.N. Secretary General U Thant had sent personal messages to Khrushchev and Kennedy. Once again, Voskresenskiy took the initiative and proposed the first toast: “To the health of U Thant, and may God grant that this not be our last drink!” This time we all drank down our toast in silence and very solemnly, realizing how close we now were to a situation in which this cognac and this watermelon could be our last.
Still hoping to avoid the cancellation of the Mars mission, Chertok went to another cottage and, with considerable difficulty, made a forbidden call to S. P. Korolev, overall head of the Soviet rocket program, who was then in Moscow. Korolev told him that things were being taken care of and not to worry.
It was already dark when I returned to the Marshal’s cottage. On the road, a Gazik came to an abrupt halt. Kirillov jumped out of it, saw me, swept me up in a hug, and practically screamed: “All clear!” We burst into the cottage and demanded that they pour “not our last drink,” but alas! The bottles were empty. While everyone excitedly discussed the historic significance of the “All clear” command, Lena brought out a bottle of “three star” cognac from some secret stash. Once again the Mars rockets were waiting for us at the launch site and in the MIK.
Reflecting on the crisis many years later, Chertok wrote:
Few had been aware of the actual threat of a potential nuclear missile war at that time. In any event, one did not see the usual lines for salt, matches, and kerosene that form during the threat of war. Life continued with its usual day-to-day joys, woes, and cares. When the world really was on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe, only a very small number of people in the USSR and the United States realized it. Khrushchev and Kennedy exercised restraint and did not give in to their emotions. Moreover, the military leaders of both sides did not display any independent initiative nor did they deviate at all from the orders of their respective heads of state. Very likely, Khrushchev wasn’t just guided by the pursuit of peace “at any cost.” He knew that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was many times greater than ours. The Cubans did not know this and viewed Moscow’s order to call off missile preparation and dismantle the launch sites as a betrayal of Cuba’s interests. President Kennedy had no doubt as to the United States’ nuclear supremacy. The possibility of a single nuclear warhead striking New York kept him from starting a nuclear war. Indeed, this could have been the warhead on the R-7A missile that they didn’t roll out of the MIK to the pad at Site No. 1.
(cross-posted at Chicago Boyz)
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Discussion (7)
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I'm currently listening to Red Moon Rising by Matthew Brzezinski. I just got to the aftermath of the Sputnik launch. I don't know if the book goes as far as the 1962 missile crisis.
I do remember those days, though. I was a freshman in high school at the time. In my mind at the time the period when Kennedy announced his knowledge of the missiles in Cuba was anti-climactic, though that was obviously not the case with some of those most closely involved with the missiles.
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In the “Eyeball to Eyeball“ confrontation with the Soviets, JFK didn’t just blink, he gave away the store.
The stereotypical story of the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis paints a picture of a steely eyed JFK forcing the Soviets to abandon plans to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. An unambiguous victory for the US. Right? That’s certainly how I learned it. It’s also exactly backwards.
The truth is that the Soviet’s move to nuclearize Cuba came as a direct response to the US putting nuclear missiles into Italy and Turkey. The end result of the crisis, and the part that’s never mentioned, is that Kennedy agreed to remove those missiles. The Soviet’s wanted those missiles in Italy and Turkey gone. And their Cuba gambit resulted in exactly that outcome. Worse, a Soviet presence in the Americas was normalized. It’s Krushchev who emerged victorious not JFK.
Great article on the real story here.
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That part is usually not omitted these days in telling of the story. For decades conservatives complained about that hidden part of the deal, but it seems it's a long time since that hasn't been a standard part of any telling of the story.
What irks me, though, is that the standard leftwing documentary treatment of the story still has Kennedy becoming aware of the missiles after the photo evidence was shown to him. But any perusal of the newspaper archives will show you that members of Congress and many newspapers had been screaming about the missiles in Cuba long before that, and the Kennedy administration had been trying to play down those concerns. That's why the actual days of the missile crisis, as usually understood, seemed anti-climatic to me at the time. Kennedy finally confronted the problem, and then I relaxed. Sure, there was the messy business of actually coming to some kind of agreement, and the confrontation with ships and submarines, but the real issue had been getting Kennedy to confront the problem.
That's how it seemed to me at the time, but I was only a high school freshman then, and I was getting my information from the Omaha World-Herald (then a conservative newspaper), Human Events, and places like that.
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I was eight years old at the time, and while I didn't know the political background to the crisis, I could certainly tell the adults were very worried and upset, glued to the TV when Kennedy spoke. And rightly so, as we lived about eight miles from SAC bomber base, undoubtedly on the Soviet target list.
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That would make a difference! We lived in northeast Nebraska then, and I was aware that in case of war, we would probably not die immediately from a direct hit in our location. But there was/is an air force base in Omaha. Don't know if I gave that any thought at the time, but Omaha seemed a long ways off. (170 miles.) My birthplace home in North Dakota later had a Minuteman installation just a mile or two away, of which I was aware when we went to visit my grandfather. His country store gained a lease on life of a couple of years due to business from workers on the Minuteman silo. But that was later, though not a lot later.
I do not remember anyone watching any of the TV news at the time, though we probably did. I would devour the Omaha World-Herald each day after school, Ronald Reagan style--comics and sports first. I do remember being glued to the TV set a year later, after the Kennedy assassination.
Here is a facebook photo of the heat register where I used to sit on the floor and read the newspaper after school. It was almost directly above the coal furnace in the basement, and probably was the warmest spot in the house in cold weather. I imbibed a lot of right-wing journalism in that location.
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