As an aside, the name Rumsfeld pops up on that page a couple of times in contexts which resonate rather uncomfortably with more recent history.
Stranger On A Train - Once again, thanks for taking the time to share this stuff. It’s always great to read informed commentary rather than the usual tosh from blowhards puffing their own worldview.
Yes - thanks to all the contributors.
I had read a few years back that the Soviet person in charge of the missiles had stated (newspaper article) that if the USA had invaded Cuba he would have launched his missiles at the American forces on the beach head.
However given the amount of preparation time necessary, it seems unlikely as I would imagine they (the missiles) would have been one of the first things the US Air Force would have taken out.
Was he speaking of the SS-4 and SS-5 missiles (which were not ready for launch, and we knew as a matter of fact from GRU Colonel Oleg Penkovsky that the SS-4 wasn’t even ready for operational deployment having, if I recall correctly, significant problems developed with the guidance set making of questionable use at any realistic threat range), or shooter range tactical missiles?
At any rate, although we believed based on intelligence that nuclear weapons were not on the ground in Cuba, numerous sources have since reported otherwise. In Errol Morris’ documentary about Robert S. McNamara, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara, the former Secretary of Defense during the Crisis related an exchange he had with Fidel Castro during a conference in the late 'Nineties, in which Castro not only baldly stated that they had the weapons on island at the time of the Crisis but that he would have recommended to Khrushchev that the Soviets use them in the case that the United States attempted an invasion effort. “Pull the temple down on our heads, Mr. President? I hope not!”
Anyway, the whole business was an ugly mess stemming from Khrushchev’s eminently reasonable (and somewhat desperate) desire to remove missiles from nearby Turkey and JFK’s misunderstanding of intent; had this all been handled on the d.l. through diplomatic channels we could have agreed to remove the missiles (which we were planning to do anyway once the Atlas and Titan I systems came on line) and everybody would have saved face and looked strong to their respective constituencies (the American people for Kennedy, the Poliburo and Soviet military for Premier/First Secretary Khrushchev). Instead, we ended up with a mess that nearly caused a catastrophic war and ultimately got Khrushchev deposed.
Stranger
Stranger, I’m not sure as I am relying on my faulty memory. It is quite possible that this guy was talking of two different types of missiles