The Cuban Missile Crisis ｜ Our History)

The man who talked to the Russians plainly, firmly, and meant every word he said, is the hero of America, and is fervently thanked by the great majority of the Western world. Now dramatically from Havana, come films taken on the eve of the crisis. A tenseness was unmistakable. Both people and government expected an American invasion. Students helped to man the anti-aircraft guns. Not very impressive looking weapons against the sort of planes the U.S. could have sent over, if invasion had been the plan. At last the Cubans, army, and people knew that Russian rocket sites had been installed, and that more were on the way, before President Kennedy imposed the blockade. Needless to say, it was still easy to fan anti-American feeling, playing on the supposed threat of invasion. American men of war rapidly deployed, and to the red ships bound for Cuba went orders to change course. Khrushchev knew President Kennedy was not bluffing. The world's biggest warship, the aircraft carrier Enterprise, and all the other ships meant business. In Cuba, President Castro long ago chose to ally his government with Russia. Of course, he may regret. He made his allegiance clear at the United Nations two years ago. The Russian leader played up as only he can. But as we go to press, it is announced that he will suspend shipments of arms to Cuba. Kennedy has spoken and acted in the way the Soviet understands. The blockade serves its purpose, but not all tension is yet lifted. America wants those rocket sites removed from Cuba. Cuban refugees brought out the first rumors of Russian missiles being taken secretly to Cuba. On October the 14th, reconnaissance planes brought back the first pictures of the sites. The president ordered preparations for any emergency. The armed forces were put on alert. The American naval base on Cuba was reinforced. On October the 19th, President Kennedy was told by the Russian foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, the Russians had no offensive weapons on Cuba. But the next day... The evidence is incontrovertible. Aerial cameras in American military reconnaissance planes made remarkable photographs, such as this one of a medium range ballistic missile base, which documents the Soviet offensive buildup in Cuba. The Defense Department says there are eight to 10 missile bases in Cuba. This photograph shows the surface-to-air missile assembly depot. All the western hemisphere, from Hudson Bay to Lima in Peru, is within their range. Medium-range missiles can travel 1,200 miles, and the long-range missiles can strike as far as 2,400 miles away. The press and newsreels showed growing worldwide concern. Last Monday, President Kennedy spoke by television and radio to the nation and the world. This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere. To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba, from whatever nation or port, will, if found to contain cargos of offensive weapons, be turned back. It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union. Under the charter of the United Nations, we are asking tonight that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be convoked without delay to take action against this latest Soviet threat to world peace. Our resolution will call for the prompt dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons in Cuba under the supervision of UN observers before the quarantine can be lifted. At the United Nations, the American ambassador to the UN, Adlai Stevenson, asked the Russian ambassador, Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? We'll have your answer in due course. I'm prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. The pictures were then shown as evidence. Faced by a blockade of Cuba, Khrushchev first offered a deal. He would withdraw missiles from Cuba if NATO missiles in Turkey, threatening the USSR, were removed. Kennedy says no, he will not do a deal over Cuba and Turkey. Khrushchev finally has agreed the missiles are to go without conditions. Why have the USSR and the United States shown such a deep interest in the small island of Cuba, only 90 miles off the Florida coast? Why have they been ready to risk a nuclear war? In the 19th century, many Americans saw the strategic importance of the Spanish colony of Cuba. An American senator said, Sooner than see the island belong to another power, we would prefer to see it sink into the sea. In 1898, when the United States battleship Maine was blown up mysteriously on a courtesy visit to Havana, the Spaniards were blamed. America went to war. One of the earliest newsreels shows American troops invading Cuba. In three months, America had won the war. The American government recognized Cuba as an independent republic, but also set up a naval base there. So how independent was Cuba? Americans invested millions of dollars in their close neighbor. American companies controlled nearly all Cuba's electricity and telephones, half the railways, and over half the sugar fields. Many Cubans did well from this American interest, from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, and from American tourists. Fulgencio Batista, a former army sergeant, seized power in 1933. Until the 1950s, Batista and the police force kept the country politically stable, but at a heavy price. So how did the Cubans really feel about conditions in their country? In the towns, there might be prosperity, but in the countryside, there was poverty. There might be privileges for the few, but for many, there was misery. Opposition was met with terror. Fidel Castro, captured leader of a rebel force, voiced the feelings of the people at his trial in 1953 with these words. If there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, of love for humanity, of love for justice, listen to me. 200,000 Cuban families live in huts and hovels. 400,000 live in slums without even the minimum sanitary requirements. 200,000 have no electricity. When the head of the family works only three months a year, with what can he buy clothes and medicine for his children? They will grow up with rickets, with not a single good tooth in their heads. The right of rebellion against tyranny, honorable magistrates, has been recognized from most ancient times. Condemn me, I do not care. History will absolve me. After imprisonment and release, Castro led another revolt. This time, he was successful. On the 1st of January 1959, Castro became the ruler of Cuba and promised democracy and freedom. How would the United States react? When Fidel Castro went to the United States on an unofficial visit in 1959, he was well received. Many of his reforms seemed likely to appeal to Americans. There was now a fairer society where all could enjoy themselves, where once only the rich had played. There was an end to racial barriers. A start was made on building new homes for the people. A year later, America stopped trading with Cuba. The mood had changed, as British world in action film showed last year. Now most Americans detest him. They have their reasons. Castro confiscated their property. He nationalized their oil refineries when they protested against his purchase of Russian crude. He also nationalized the British refinery. The sign of his Cuban company now replaces the shell on the service stations. Castro nationalized the American department stores in Havana, and the hotels, and the casinos. He even nationalized Coca-Cola. Castro also shocked Americans, and indeed many people throughout the world, by his stagy trials of alleged war criminals. Their trials were short, justice was rough, death followed at once. Castro shocked America even more, however, when he switched his friendship and allegiance from the United States to Russia and the Iron Curtain countries. Today, new lorries in Havana are not from Detroit, but from Moscow. Tin food is not from Chicago, but from Warsaw, Leningrad, and Peking. Today's foreign hero is not Elvis Presley, but Yuri Gagarin. Cubans explained this by saying that America deserted them, and the Russians came to their rescue. They say, and they're correct, that Cuba would today be at a standstill without communist aid. Some people call Cuba a communist state, others a Marxist state. Castro calls it a socialist republic. No matter what word you use, the island of Cuba, which is much the same size as Britain, is today an outpost, the only acknowledged outpost of the communist world in the western hemisphere. The American government responded to the threat by use of the CIA. In Miami, in the summer of 1960, it seems to have been an open secret that the CIA were hiring and training a force of Cuban exiles who would invade Cuba with U.S. support. This news film was taken of training in Miami months before the actual invasion. What are you doing in the south, Angus? Well, there seems to be some sort of a job that has to be done in Cuba, and the United States cannot take an active part in it. You might say we're more or less spearheading that drive to rid Cuba of communism a little bit too close to our shores. You're not backed by CIA or any organization, are you? Well, I've heard rumors to that effect, but nobody can prove it. Everything went disastrously wrong with the invasion of the Bay of Pigs last year, as this Czechoslovakian film shows. The enemy was confused. He had thought that our defense would crumble under the very first attack. He did not expect all the Cuban people to rise against him, and those who stood behind the scenes and supported this shameful aggression made a mistake in their reckoning. We suffered many wounded and many lives lost. But Fidel Castro was among us, the old experienced fighter, once again in his element. He inspired us and strengthened us in the heavy fighting. For the first time in history, a socialist revolution has taken root in the soil of the Americas. As a result, Castro's friendship with Khrushchev has grown even stronger since they met in 1960. But with Cuba only 90 miles away from Florida, why has Khrushchev stepped into an area he knows to be sensitive to the United States? When the Second World War ended in 1945, it was hoped that the wartime alliance would work in peace as well. But in June that year, Lowe's cartoon showed they were a fine team, but could do with a dash of unity. There were already problems in working together. Both sides have distrusted and feared each other. This has produced what we call the Cold War. Russia fears American strike power and the bases surrounding Soviet territory. Kennedy complains about Russian bases in Cuba, but Khrushchev also complains about American bases in Turkey, on Russia's doorstep, as Vicky's cartoon showed last week. Last year, in Berlin, the Americans and their allies stood firm. Last year, the Americans tried to destroy Russia's new ally, Castro. So, was the bringing of the Russian missiles simply an attempt to warn off the United States? Or was it a serious attempt to establish a base in the Americas? Listen to the view of the crisis, telephoned last night to ITN by their reporter in Moscow. This in turn means that the Soviets now have a secure socialist ally in Latin America, and that's a fact to which they attach great importance for future development in that part of the world. So Mr. Khrushchev knows for certain that he will no longer be faced with the terrible question of whether a socialist Cuba is worth a war or not. And one must remember that since the Soviet people were never given a very exact idea of how dangerous the crisis was at one stage, they are all the more likely to accept this This is tonight's telephone report from the ITN reporter in New York. And this is tonight's view from Moscow. The key to the mystery of the past and the future seems to be Mr. Khrushchev's reasons for putting his missiles on Cuba in the first place. If he had hoped that he would be able to use them to threaten America with during the next round of Berlin talks, then clearly the whole of his Berlin strategy has suffered and must be revamped. He has also discovered that America is not prepared to budge over matters she thinks vital, which could also be important for Moscow's Berlin tactics. But if he put the missiles there to stop an American invasion of Cuba, which Soviets genuinely feared, then they'll serve their purpose. Whatever are the true reasons, let's hope that Adlai Stevenson was right last week at the United Nations. If we act promptly, we will have another chance to take up again the dreadful questions of nuclear arms and military bases, and the means and causes of aggression and of war, to take them up and do something about them. This is a solemn, I believe, and significant day for the life of the United Nations and the hope of the world community. Let it be remembered not as the day when the world came to the edge of nuclear war, but as the day when men resolved to let nothing thereafter stop them in their quest for peace. Thank you.