# Cuban Missile Crisis **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879 "2012-03-15T17:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bookaholic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@bookaholic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookaholic)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/21 "2012-03-16T13:37:07Z")
‘Thirteen Days’…of course. Good idea. I guess the big K was very agonized by this whole thing. He was the last pres whom I thought actually had some integrity to him. I’m probably wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/22 "2012-03-16T13:50:36Z")
My father was a USMC officer on active duty at the time. I was pretty young, but I remember knowing something was going on when he did not return home one day. Even my mother did not know where he was, other than that he was still on base. This happened before Kennedy announced the crises to the country. IIRC, it was several days before we saw him again. So, from the military’s point of view, it was a very serious situation and they were prepared to meet it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/23 "2012-03-16T16:09:24Z")
> [@bookaholic](#): > > ‘Thirteen Days’…of course. Good idea. > I guess the big **K** was very agonized by this whole thing. He was the last pres whom I thought actually had some integrity to him. I’m probably wrong. Gotta be careful using big K like this. Kennedy was always referred to as “JFK” in the press. The letter K by itself commonly referred to Khrushchev. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/24 "2012-03-16T16:10:23Z")
> [@bookaholic](#): > > ‘Thirteen Days’…of course. Good idea. > I guess the big K was very agonized by this whole thing. He was the last pres whom I thought actually had some integrity to him. I’m probably wrong. Not trying to get into a oneupmanship in re Missile Crisis movies, but “The Missiles of October” is one kickbutt movie. I liked it better than 13 Days. YMMV\> ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/25 "2012-03-16T17:40:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > You’re thinking of Korean Air Lines Flight KAL-007, shot down on Sept. 1, 1983. > Wikipedia article: [Korean Air Lines Flight 007 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAL_007) This flight did accidentally(?) stray into Soviet airspace over a sensitive area so they had a pausible excuse to shoot it down. One version I read said that it was mistaken for a US AWAC-type electronic spy plane, and the Soviets thought “aha! Finally we have a valid excuse to teach those USAF/CIA guys a lesson!” Other claims said the pilots should have been able to tell the aircraft type by markings and windows (and a 747 from a 707?), it was deliberate; others say they attacked from below and the rear from quite a distance so as to not get showered with debris and would not have seen clearly, etc. Conspiracy types will argue that the navigation “error” was deliberate, some still think it had spy equipment on board too, etc. Oddly, there was an identical problem a few years before where a KAL(?) jet from northern europe got navigationally confused and did a 180 near the pole, and ended up being forced down on a frozen lake in northern Russia. Not as big a deal was made of it, because most of the passengers survived. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/26 "2012-03-16T17:43:49Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Conspiracy types will argue that the navigation “error” was deliberate, some still think it had spy equipment on board too, etc. Not to mention the fact that a flight numbered “007” _must_ be on a spy mission! ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/27 "2012-03-16T21:22:03Z")
> [@Rich\_G7subs](#): > > I believe there was an event in late 1983 where we even came closer to war! I’ll have to research it a bit but here’s what I know. > > Reagan came out with his “Stars Wars” SDI missile defense system and basically took a stance that the Soviets wanted war and we were ready for it. He called the USSR “The evil Empire”. That really torqued the Russkies. They thought the US was trying to provoke them. > > The Soviets then “accidentally” shotdown a Korean airlines civilian jetliner that they “thought” was a US spy plane. > > The US responded by launching war games (testing of ALL the communication gear, etc) in Eastern Europe which the Soviet’s thought was a massive troop build up on their borders in preparation for a ground assault. Apparently the USSR came within minutes of launching their missiles. The war games you are thinking of was exercise Able Archer. It was going on at the same time that the Soviet Union was running it’s own nuclear war predictive program called RYAN. All of the pieces that RYAN used to predict a first strike by the US on the Soviet Union were falling into place and some were convinced that Able Archer was a cover for a first strike by the US on the Soviet Union. During this same period Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet missile commander was on watch when their missile warning system alerted that the US had launched missiles. He kept resetting the computer and did not launch a response. He was correct as the missile launches were really reflection off high level clouds that had been picked up by Soviet early warning systems. As a reward for saving the entire fucking world he was demoted. The Wiki link covers most of the issues of the time and the You Tube link is to a very good documentary of the time. “1983 The Brink of the Apocalypse.” 90 minutes but well worth the time. Later revelations of these incidents changed the mind of President Reagan who had earlier referred to the USSR as an ‘Evil Empire’. He and his advisors realized that they needed to open dialog with the USSR because the fear level was too high and the communication too low. This eventually led to the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Very good reading and viewing in these links. I now return you to your regularly scheduled Cuban Missile Crisis thread. > **[Able Archer 83](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83)** > > Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of the annual Able Archer exercise. It simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, leading to concerns that it could have been mistaken for a real attack by the Soviet Union. The exercise is considered by some to be one of the closest moments the world came to nuclear war during the Cold War. The purpose of the exercise, like previous years, was to simul The... https://www.youtube.com/embed/8kTnXqfT1Mk?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque > **[Stanislav Petrov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov)** > > This is an accepted version of this page > > Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (Russian: Станисла́в Евгра́фович Петро́в; 7 September 1939 – 19 May 2017) was a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Defence Forces who played a key role in the 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident. On 26 September 1983, three weeks after the Soviet military had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, Petrov was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported that ... ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/28 "2012-03-17T02:09:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Not to mention the fact that a flight numbered “007” _must_ be on a spy mission! Oh, it was even better than that. The President of the John Birch Society (extreme anti-Commie) was on the plane. 007, JBS President…what’s not to love? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/29 "2012-03-17T03:04:14Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Oh, it was even better than that. The President of the John Birch Society (extreme anti-Commie) was on the plane. 007, JBS President…what’s not to love? That extreme anti-commie JBP prez also happened to be a U. S. Congressman. Still, I agree with your sentiment, **harry** – I can just tell there’s a mod note in your near future, which is why I didn’t write the above first. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/30 "2012-03-18T01:32:30Z")
If you want to learn more about the Cuban Missile Crisis: A short and interesting (if somewhat biased) account by an insider, the President’s brother: > **[Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy, Robert F.,...](https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Days-Memoir-Missile-Crisis/dp/0393318346)** > > Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis \[Kennedy, Robert F., Schlesinger, Arthur Meier\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis A much more detailed, process-oriented discussion of JFK’s calm, skillful handling of the situation: > **[Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis: Graham Allison, Philip...](https://www.amazon.com/Essence-Decision-Explaining-Missile-Crisis/dp/0321013492)** > > Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis \[Graham Allison, Philip Zelikow\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis A good account by a British historian, putting the Crisis in context with all of the other foreign policy headaches JFK had to deal with during his White House years: > **[Amazon.com: Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam: 9780195152432:...](https://www.amazon.com/Kennedys-Wars-Berlin-Cuba-Vietnam/dp/0195152433)** > > Amazon.com: Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam: 9780195152432: Freedman, Lawrence: Books ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/31 "2012-03-19T14:57:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > That extreme anti-commie JBP prez also happened to be a U. S. Congressman. > > Still, I agree with your sentiment, **harry** – I can just tell there’s a mod note in your near future, which is why I didn’t write the above first. :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/32 "2012-03-19T15:00:51Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > As a reward for saving the entire fucking world he was demoted. This is an injustice? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879/33 "2012-03-19T15:17:59Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > During this same period Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet missile commander was on watch when their missile warning system alerted that the US had launched missiles. He kept resetting the computer and did not launch a response. He was correct as the missile launches were really reflection off high level clouds that had been picked up by Soviet early warning systems. As a reward for saving the entire fucking world he was demoted. > [@handsomeharry](#): > > This is an injustice? Maybe he was well aware of the reliability of the computer. (Maybe it was running an early version of Windows). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuban-missile-crisis/615879.md?page=1)