The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War: A Short History with Documents

In October 1962, when the Soviet Union deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War ensued, bringing the world close to the brink of nuclear war. Over two tense weeks, U.S. president John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev managed to negotiate a peaceful resolution to what was nearly a global catastrophe.

Drawing on the best recent scholarship and previously unexamined documents from the archives of the former Soviet Union, this introductory volume examines the motivations and calculations of the major participants in the conflict, sets the crisis in the context of the broader history of the global Cold War, and traces the effects of the crisis on subsequent international and regional geopolitical relations.

Selections from twenty primary sources provide firsthand accounts of the frantic deliberations and realpolitik diplomacy between the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and Fidel Castro's Cuban regime; thirteen illustrations are also included.

• The Origins of the Cold War
• A New Front in the Cold War
• The Cold War in Latin America
• The Cuban Revolution and the Soviet Union
• U.S. and Regional Responses to the Cuban Revolution
• Operation Zapata: The Bay of Pigs
• Operation Anadyr: Soviet Missiles in Cuba
• Crisis Dénouement: The Missiles of November
• Evaluating the Leadership on All Sides of the Crisis
• Nuclear Fallout: Consequences of the Missile Crisis
• The Future of Cuban-Soviet Relations
• Latin American Responses to the Missile Crisis
• Conclusion: Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Historiography of the Cuban Missile Crisis

1. Memorandum for McGeorge Bundy from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., April 10, 1961
2. State Department White Paper, April 1961
3. From the Cable on the Conversation between Gromyko and Kennedy, October 18, 1962
4. Telegram from Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko to the CC CPSU, October 20, 1962
5. President John F. Kennedys speech to the Nation, October 22, 1962
6. Resolution Adopted by the Council of the Organization of American States Acting Provisionally as the Organ of Consultation, October 23, 1962
7. Message from Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos to Cuban President Osvaldo Dorticós, October 23, 1962
8. Letter from Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy, October 24, 1962
9. Telegram from Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to the USSR MFA, October 24, 1962
10. Memorandum for President Kennedy from Douglas Dillon, October 26, 1962
11. Telegram from Fidel Castro to N.S. Khrushchev, October 26, 1962
12. Letter from Khrushchev to Fidel Castro, October 28, 1962
13. Cable from USSR Ambassador to Cuba Alekseev to Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October 28, 1962
14. Telegram from Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Kuznetsov and Ambassador to the U.N. Zorin to USSR Foreign Ministry (1), October 30, 1962
15. Premier Khrushchevs Letter to Prime Minister Castro, October 30, 1962
16. Prime Minister Castros Letter to Premier Khrushchev, October 31, 1962
17. Meeting of the Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba with Mikoyan in the Presidential Palace, November 4, 1962
18. Brazilian Foreign Ministry Memorandum, Question of Cuba, November 20, 1968
19. Letter from Khrushchev to Fidel Castro, January 31, 1963
20. I Know Something About the Caribbean Crisis, Notes from a Conversation with Fidel Castro, November 5, 1987