Cuban Missile Crisis

How did the Cuban Missile Crisis begin? Months before Major Heyser's flight, Nikita Khrushchev had a brilliant idea. He would order Soviet missiles to be installed in Cuba. From his perspective, the Soviet Premier had some compelling reasons:

• He was upset about American Jupiter missiles in Turkey, a country adjacent to the Soviet Union. Why not balance the scale a bit with Soviet missiles in America's back yard?
  
  
• He was worried about American interference in Cuba. He didn't want the United States to overthrow Castro and his Communist revolution.

Before he decided to install missiles in Cuba, Khrushchev considered how President Kennedy would react. His conclusions, however, were based on faulty premises. Following their 1961 Vienna meeting, he thought the American President was a weak leader who would be unwilling, or unable, to make tough decisions. It was one of Khrushchev's many miscalculations.

Khrushchev first talked about his idea in May of 1962. His government debated the issue for three days. Later, Soviet Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan recalled those discussions:

We have to think a lot about this action in order to save Cuba and not to provoke a nuclear war. He [Khrushchev] ordered the military to develop the Plan and to consult with the Cubans. He told us that the main condition was to carry out the Plan secretly. Our military told us that four months were needed for the preparations. We thought the enemy would learn about it right in the middle of the plan and we anticipated what to do.

The Soviets briefed Castro about their plan. They called it Operation Anadyr. (Scroll down for the English translation of this original document.)