The US Intelligence Community: The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis or Operation Anadyr marked an occasion in US intelligence history where, the analysis became a shortfall. In the case of the Soviet Union and Cuba employing Maskirovka (deception and denial techniques), the analysis seen in the US was not able to detect the movement of the Missiles to Cuba or even the military buildup. What were these biases? In this paper, the aim will be to explore how these biases led to mistaken identifiers of the Soviet Union movement of missiles to Cuba, as well as how deception and denial operations were able to fool the US. Along with the bias being discussed, the missed identifiers that could have prevented the Soviet build up as well as the emplacement of the missile will also be explored.

The crisis began when the United States discovered the existence of offensive Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), nuclear capable, barely 90 miles from the southern coast of Florida, in Cuba. U-2 spy plane reconnaissance missions over Cuba captured the

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis? Many people have heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and may have learned about it during school, but they do not know the nitty gritty details of the whole fiasco. The CMC was the first threat of a nuclear world war. The real “crisis” was between the United States and the Soviet Union and not Cuba. Cuba played a relatively small role in the grand scheme of it all and was basically the field on which the two powerhouses played on. The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the most tense 13 days that the world has ever known and had the possibility of completely disintegrating the world we know today. In this paper we will learn exactly what happened.

The event of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war. Fifteen years into the cold war, the two superpowers continued the fierce competition to increase their military strength. In 1962, the Soviet Union was desperately behind the United States in the nuclear arms race. Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, whereas the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. In late April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba which would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union. The fate of millions

During an infamous thirteen-day stretch of October 1962, America faced the prospect of imminent nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Two things saved humanity: the strategic wisdom of John F. Kennedy, and the U-2 aerial spy program. Above and Beyond tells the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis through the eyes of the pilots that launched out of McCoy Air Force Base in

The crisis over the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba is, in all likelihood, the turning point of the Kennedy presidency, and the counterpart to the humiliation at the Bay of Pigs. Its development and outcome would provide the US president a historic victory and an unprecedented international prestige. His personal and political stature would reach peaks that never come to pass.

On October 16, 1962 the United States began a blockade of Cuba after spy planes had confirmed the establishment of Soviet nuclear missile sites in the country. These missiles posed an unprecedented danger on the United states being only miles from the American coast line. During this ordeal, the country was divided on how to proceed, the military command or “Hawks”, favored the invasion of Cuba to dismantle the missiles. Others favored a more peaceful approach and

The book covers and observes the events that took place from October 16th, 1962 to October 28th, 1962. It shows how ExComm was able to, with quick and intuitive thinking, persevere through even the toughest moments in the crisis. The book only covers the American point of view, from Robert Kennedy’s eyes and into the meeting room of Excomm. Robert Kennedy John F. Kennedy’s younger brother and attorney general, and soon senator. Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5th, 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan.From the Russian point of view, Max Frankel writes that one day, while the Soviet leader, Nikita S. Khrushchev wasn’t doing anything in particular, when suddenly, the idea of sending missiles to Cuba popped in his head. His reasoning was that if the Americans could have missiles pointed at Russia from Turkey, it should be acceptable that they could have missiles in Cuba pointed at them. So it began, missiles were sent to Cuba as inconspicuously as possible. For about a month, they secretly assembled and built up missiles in Cuba. Only a few people were told of the plan. Khrushchev planned to reveal the missiles in November, after the congressional elections, because the Americans would “make a fuss, make more fuss, and then accept.” (11,

It has now been 53 years since the Cuban missile crisis. Even though disaster was averted, the world came too close to destroying itself to let the lessons of October 1962 played from our memories. In this paper, I will show while the nuclear strategic game between the United States and the Soviet union was so dangerous. Good intelligence is crucial to making good decisions in such a dangerous situation. Acquiring that good intelligence pros to be quite dangerous and the Cuban missile crisis. Also complicating matters was the fact that the two leaders of the crisis President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev, we 're getting catastrophically bad advice from the military experts and ancillary players

The peaks, troughs, and ideas of warfare are written into history as some of the most significant, radical, and often horrific moments that have ever seen the face of the earth. The October of 1962 was a time where the world stood in shock; watching as the possibility of a total war between the two global superpowers slowly became a reality. The USSR and America were engrossed in a conflict so sensitive that one push of a button could have easily wiped out the entire state of Florida and left the rest of America in a shroud nuclear fallout; and ultimately a cold and merciless war. The decision of the USSR to place missiles in Cuba could have lead to worldwide disaster without successful

“The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: A National Security Archive Documents Reader” edited by Laurence Chang and

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a frightening moment for the entire world. It started October 14th, 1962 after the Soviet Union planted nuclear missiles inn Cuba. The U.S. found out that these missiles were being planted without their knowledge, but the Soviet Union continued the construction of these nuclear missile sites, even after President Kennedy, the president of the U.S., sent out a warning against these weapons in Cuba. Even after this warning, Kennedy once again found out that the construction was still happening. Following the discovery of the ongoing construction, Kennedy wanted to meet with people at the White House to solve the problem that they were encountering. There were multiple sides during their talk about the missiles. Some of the people at the meeting wanted to take a more aggressive approach and destroy these missiles and then follow up with an attack. Kennedy eventually decided to quarantine Cuba. After Kennedy quarantined Cuba, there were many messages sent between the White House and the Kremlin to try and solve the problem. The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted for thirteen extremely tense days. At the end of these thirteen days, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with an agreement between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis greatly impacted history. It strengthened the bond between the United States and Soviet Union, showed people how to come to a

This crisis was the 1st time the USA and the USSR faced each other in direct conflict (Phillips 105). It was an example of US brinkmanship, this meant that one would go to ‘the brink of war without being scared’, an idea brought forward by Dulles (Philips 67). This meant that the USA was truly prepared to use their nuclear weapons – they were ready to go to the brink of war. The Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, uttered one of the most unforgettable lines of the crisis: “We’re eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked” (50 year myth). The USSR had deployed missiles in Cuba, which was a problem for the USA as it was in their ‘backyard’ and there could only be a three-minute warning if a nuclear strike was to

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 reflects possibly the most precarious moment in nuclear history. For the first time, the world’s two nuclear super powers, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were poised to destroy each other in a war of unprecedented proportion. On the brink of what may have escalated into a nuclear war, the leaders of two nations showed courageous restraint and diplomacy to avoid an exchange of brute force and unimaginable desolation. The situation was preempted by the Bay of Pigs, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba. Castro had gained authority through a rebellion against Fulgencio Batista, the previous Cuban dictator (Bay of Pigs). America was displeased with Castro, mainly because he was a Communist leader so close to American shores, so a plan to depose him was made, without official United States military support.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is undeniably a major confrontation of the Cold War. Lasting for 13 days it is arguably the pinnacle of the Cold War. This crisis was a decisive factor in the United States’ (US) decision process of whether to engage in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (USSR). However the essential fault of both state leaders (J. Kennedy and N. Khrushchev) which created the inevitable crisis was miscommunication. Today we recognise actions taken by both states during the crisis as consistent with a realist point of view. Realism holds great emphasise on the obstacles enforced by human nature and the non-attendance of an international government. Creating international politics an area focused on power and state-interest.