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The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to thermonuclear war. "Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by a thread…and we weren't counting by days or hours, but minutes." 1 The United States was at its highest readiness state ever and the Soviets were ready to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield to defend an island off the coast of Florida - Cuba. Due to two great leaders The United States and The Soviet Union avoided actions that may have started WWIII.
Fidel Castro assumed power over Cuba on January 1st, 1959. On Deceraber 19th, 1960, Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies. When the Cuban premier expropriated an estimated $1 billion in U.S.-owned properties in 1960, the U.S. government responded by imposing a trade erabargo. A complete break in diplomatic relations occurred in 1961 and on April 17th of that same year, United States backed Cuban exiles came up with a plan to overthrow Castro. Approved by President John F. Kennedy, the invasion launched about 1300 exiles, trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and armed with U.S. weapons, at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the coast of Cuba. Castro's army quickly stopped the exiles that hoped to find local support. Ninety of the invader's were killed and twelve hundred captured. This failure was a big erabarrassment to the Kennedy administration.
As of 1962 the Soviet Union was loosing a desperate arms race, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived an idea of placing intermediate-range cruise missiles in Cuba. This deployment would double their strategic arsenal as well as act as a deterrent to a potential U.S. attack. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro was also looking for a way to prevent what he felt was an inevitable second attack. In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union quickly worked to build its secret missile installations in Cuba.
The crises began for the U.S. on October 15, 1962 when reconnaissance photographs revealed the Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba. October 14, 1962, Richard Heyser, a veteran pilot, flew a U2 spy plane over Cuba. He had no idea that this routine flight wasn't "routine". The pictures were picked-up by a one star general. This seemed odd to Heyser - a one star general does not run erranRAB.
After being informed the next day, Kennedy organized the Executive Committee of the United States National Security Council (EX-COMM). This handpicked group of 19 men helped Kennedy through this crisis. They provided intelligence briefings, edited Kennedy's letters, and argued over the best course of action. EX-COMM proved to be an irrefutable way to manage the crisis. The Statutory merabers included: Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Chairman of the JCS General Maxwell Taylor, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy, Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon, CIA Director John McCone, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Undersecretary of State George Ball, Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen, Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, and Soviet Specialist Llewellyn Thompson. In addition, the EX-COMM unofficially included: Deputy Under Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, private advisers John McCloy and Robert Lovett, U.S. arabassador to the U.N. Adlai Stevenson, Deputy Director of the USIA Donald Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Edwin Martin, and Former U.S. Arabassador to the Soviet Union Charles Bohlen. President Kennedy chaired the Executive Committee.
On the night of October 17, 1962, during another U-2 flight, the military discovered intermediate range SS-5 nuclear missiles (IRBMs). These could reach anywhere in the continental United States except for the Pacific Northwest. At this point the Soviets did not yet know that the United States had knowledge of the missiles in Cuba. The big concern was that if the Soviets found out that America knew about the missiles, they might hide them or even launch them immediately. So the issue was to keep things quiet, so as not to provide the Soviets any information. This was almost compromised on the 18th when President Kennedy met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrie Gromyko. EX-COMM did not know if Gromyko knew about the missiles or if the Americans knew about the missiles. Kennedy decided not to confront the minister on the issue. Even though the meeting started out about minor world events, the topic quickly shifted to Cuba. Gromyko said that the Soviet Union would help contribute to Cuba's peaceful democracy. Kennedy responded by reading a statement he had made in Septeraber saying that the U.S. would not tolerate any offensive weapons in Cuba. Later that night a dinner was held in Gromyko's honor at the State Department. As this dinner progressed EX-COMM had meetings one floor below the dinner and decided to recommend a blockade against Cuba to the President. Kennedy liked this idea because it gave the Soviets a way out. He also instructed his speechwriters to prepare two speeches to address the nation with, one announcing a blockade and the other announcing an air strike. The President had a big decision to make.
On the 20th, EX-COMM forced John F. Kennedy to make one of two choices: a surgical air strike or quarantine. Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric was quoted saying "Essentially, Mr. President, this is a choice between limited action and unlimited action - and most of us think it is better to start with limited action." However, Kennedy still would not make a decision until the next day.
The next day Kennedy met with his advisors to discuss, in greater detail, the missiles in Cuba. The Strategic Air Command told Kennedy that they could take out all the missiles that they knew about. They could not, however, predict 100 percent success. They also predicted a 10,00 to 20,000 casualty count. This left Kennedy with blockading Cuba as an option. In the speech Kennedy gave the nation, he would use the word "quarantine" instead of "blockade." This was an important decision. A blockade, as defined under international treaties is an act of war. Quarantine, on the other hand, is merely an attempt to keep something unwanted out of a particular area. Under this verbiage, the U.S. could act without declaring war.
On October 22, 1962 at 7:00pm eastern standard time, President Kennedy addressed the nation.2 At the same time, the military was raised to DEFCON3. Jet fighter's took-off from Miami, Florida to be ready for a military retaliation from Cuba. In addition, twenty planes armed with nuclear borabs were in the air ready to strike the USSR. Earlier in the day, Kennedy had sent Khrushchev a copy of his speech. After reading the speech Khrushchev became infuriated. First he was angry at his own military for not successfully hiding the missiles and secondly he acknowledged the American quarantine as an act of war. His first response was to instruct the ships on their way to Cuba not to stop for any reason. Later though, he sent a response to Kennedy: "I must say frankly that the measures indicated in your statement constitutes a serious threat to peace and to the security of nations... We reaffirm that the armaments which are in Cuba, regardless of the classification to which they may belong, are intended solely for defensive purposes...I hope the United States Government will display wisdom and renounce the actions pursued by you, which may lead to cata-strophic consequences for world peace."
Fidel Castro's response to Kennedy's speech was first to mobilize all of Cuba's military. He was not surprised though. The United States was constantly threatening Cuba. Ever since the "Bay of Pigs", Cuba had been in constant fear of invasion. This didn't seem to be out of the ordinary to Castro.
On the 23rd, Kennedy ordered six Crusader jets to fly a low-level reconnaissance mission. This mission, was flown at 350 feet and 350 knots, brought back pictures of missile sites and showed the Soviets testing the missiles for launch. The pictures were so close that you could see the writing on the sides of the missiles. That same day quarantine was unanimously approved by the Organization of American States (OAS). The quarantine was to take effect at 10:00am (EST) on the 24th October, 1962.
By Wednesday October 24th saw the military raised to the highest level ever in United States Military history - DEFCON2. The Soviets sent their ships almost all the way to the blockade line 800 miles off the coast of Cuba. The U.S. ships were instructed to make radio contact first if the line was crossed. If the Soviets did not turn back, a warning shot was to be fired across their bow. As a last resort to stop the Soviets, the U.S. ships were instructed to blow off the rudder to impede forward progress. Twenty-five minutes after the blockade began, Khrushchev turned his ships back. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said "We've been eyeball to eyeball and the other fellow just blinked." This did not mean that the crisis was over. Later that evening Khrushchev wrote Kennedy:
"You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but
rather are advancing an ultimatum and threatening that
if we do not give in to your demanRAB you will use
force.... No Mr. President, I cannot agree to this,
and I think that in your own heart you recognize that
I am correct. I am convinced that in my place you would
act the same way. Therefore the Soviet Government
cannot instruct the captains of Soviet vessels bound
for Cuba to observe the orders of the American naval
forces blockading that Island.... Naturally we will not
simply be bystanders with regard to piratical acts by
American ships on the high seas. We will then be forced
on our part to take the measures we consider necessary
and adequate to protect our rights. We have everything
necessary to do so."
"National security must come first...we can't negotiate with a gun at our head... if they won't remove the missiles and restore status quo ante, we will have to do it ourselves." Kennedy said after politely refusing a temporary pause to the crisis offered by the United Nations on the 25th. The terms were for the Soviets to stop shipping offensive weapons to Cuba for two or three weeks in exchange for the U.S. dropping the quarantine for the same amount of time. Kennedy refused this by simply stating that this would allow the Soviets to strengthen sites already in Cuba.
In the early morning of Friday, October 26th, the U.S. quarantine forces boarded the Marcula. This Lebanese freighter was the first ship to be boarded and searched for contraband in conjunction with the crisis.
Aleksandr Fomin, who was known to be the KGB station chief in Washington, requested a meeting with ABC News correspondent John Scali. Fomin told Scali that there might be a resolution. Fomin proposed the dismantling of Soviet bases under U.N. supervision in exchange for a public pledge from the U.S. not to invade Cuba. AfterwarRAB, Scali went directly to the State Department to inform Roger Hilsman of the meeting. Since Fomin was a high-ranking officer, the U.S. assumed the proposal was an official one from Khrushchev. Later in the day, Scali was sent back to Fomin with a message from Secretary of State Dean Rusk:
"I have reason to believe that the U.S. government sees
real possibilities and supposes that the representatives
of the two governments in New York could work this
matter out with U Thant and with each other. My
impression is, however, that time is very urgent."
Fomin assured Scali that he would convey the message to the "highest Soviet sources." But the most important occurrence on the 26th was a letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy. The letter began to arrive at the White House at 6:00 p.m. but because it had to be translated, it came in four separate parts, the last of which arrived at 9:00 p.m. The letter was clearly written by Khrushchev himself wanting to resolve the crisis. Khrushchev proposed to remove the missiles if Kennedy would publicly announce never to invade Cuba.
You and I should not now pull on the enRAB of the rope in which you have tied a knot of war, because the harder you and I pull, the tighter the knot will become. And a time may come when this knot is tied so tight that the person who tied it is no longer capable of untying it, and then the knot will have to be cut. What that would mean I need not explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly what dread forces our two countries possess.
I propose we, for our part, will declare that our ships bound for Cuba are not carrying any armaments. You will declare that the United States will not invade Cuba with its troops and will not support any other forces which might intend to invade Cuba. Then the necessity of the presence of our military specialists in Cuba will disappear.
On the 27th, on a routine mission over western Alaska, a U-2 picked the wrong star to navigate by and flew off course into Soviet airspace. When the pilot realized his mistake, he immediately radioed for help. By this time the Soviets and Americans had gotten their respective fighter jets in the air. The American F-102's were equipped with nuclear air-to-air missiles. Fortunately the U-2 left Soviet air space before the two groups ever met. At noon a U-2 was shot down over Cuba. The order to launch the missile was given by a Soviet commander in Cuba. By this time, both the US and the USSR were worried about each other's view of the day's events. Fidel Castro was also loosing his nerve. He believed that the Americans were gaining information for an invasion within the next 24 to 72 hours.
He believed that only an invasion or a trade (for missiles in Turkey) would now succeed. He also agreed to enhance pressure by increasing the frequency of low-level flights over Cuba from twice per day to once every two hours.
On the 28th, Khrushchev announces over Radio Moscow that he has agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba to avoid the invasion of that country.
The tensions eased on a little on Sunday, October 28, but the crisis was not over yet. The United States and the Soviet Union still had some terms of agreement to be decided. In the final negotiations Castro, who felt betrayed by Khrushchev, tried to stop the removal and inspection of the missiles. With the help of the United Nations (U.N.), Castro backed down and the two sides reached an agreement. A U.N. inspection team was assigned to monitor the removal of the missiles and the demolition of the missile bases in Cuba. The Soviet Navy shipped the missiles back to the Soviet Union on the decks of the ships so that American reconnaissance planes could count the missiles and make sure that all had been removed.
The only unresolved part of the agreement was the removal of the IL-28 "Beagle" medium-range borabers. EX-COMM had decided to let this minor issue slide during previous negotiations due to the larger picture. But, in Khrushchev's letter on October 28, 1962 he stated the Soviets would remove all "weapons which you describe as offensive."3 This allowed Kennedy to successfully argue for the removal of the borabers. Beginning on Noveraber 20, the planes were finally dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. The next day Kennedy formally ended the quarantine and lowered Strategic Command's Defense Condition from DEFCON 2 to DEFCON 4.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to thermonuclear war. "Nuclear catastrophe was hanging by a thread…and we weren't counting by days or hours, but minutes." 1 The United States was at its highest readiness state ever and the Soviets were ready to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield to defend an island off the coast of Florida - Cuba. Due to two great leaders The United States and The Soviet Union avoided actions that may have started WWIII.
Fidel Castro assumed power over Cuba on January 1st, 1959. On Deceraber 19th, 1960, Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies. When the Cuban premier expropriated an estimated $1 billion in U.S.-owned properties in 1960, the U.S. government responded by imposing a trade erabargo. A complete break in diplomatic relations occurred in 1961 and on April 17th of that same year, United States backed Cuban exiles came up with a plan to overthrow Castro. Approved by President John F. Kennedy, the invasion launched about 1300 exiles, trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and armed with U.S. weapons, at the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the coast of Cuba. Castro's army quickly stopped the exiles that hoped to find local support. Ninety of the invader's were killed and twelve hundred captured. This failure was a big erabarrassment to the Kennedy administration.
As of 1962 the Soviet Union was loosing a desperate arms race, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived an idea of placing intermediate-range cruise missiles in Cuba. This deployment would double their strategic arsenal as well as act as a deterrent to a potential U.S. attack. Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro was also looking for a way to prevent what he felt was an inevitable second attack. In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union quickly worked to build its secret missile installations in Cuba.
The crises began for the U.S. on October 15, 1962 when reconnaissance photographs revealed the Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba. October 14, 1962, Richard Heyser, a veteran pilot, flew a U2 spy plane over Cuba. He had no idea that this routine flight wasn't "routine". The pictures were picked-up by a one star general. This seemed odd to Heyser - a one star general does not run erranRAB.
After being informed the next day, Kennedy organized the Executive Committee of the United States National Security Council (EX-COMM). This handpicked group of 19 men helped Kennedy through this crisis. They provided intelligence briefings, edited Kennedy's letters, and argued over the best course of action. EX-COMM proved to be an irrefutable way to manage the crisis. The Statutory merabers included: Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Chairman of the JCS General Maxwell Taylor, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs McGeorge Bundy, Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon, CIA Director John McCone, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Undersecretary of State George Ball, Special Counsel Theodore Sorensen, Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, and Soviet Specialist Llewellyn Thompson. In addition, the EX-COMM unofficially included: Deputy Under Secretary of State U. Alexis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, private advisers John McCloy and Robert Lovett, U.S. arabassador to the U.N. Adlai Stevenson, Deputy Director of the USIA Donald Wilson, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Edwin Martin, and Former U.S. Arabassador to the Soviet Union Charles Bohlen. President Kennedy chaired the Executive Committee.
On the night of October 17, 1962, during another U-2 flight, the military discovered intermediate range SS-5 nuclear missiles (IRBMs). These could reach anywhere in the continental United States except for the Pacific Northwest. At this point the Soviets did not yet know that the United States had knowledge of the missiles in Cuba. The big concern was that if the Soviets found out that America knew about the missiles, they might hide them or even launch them immediately. So the issue was to keep things quiet, so as not to provide the Soviets any information. This was almost compromised on the 18th when President Kennedy met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrie Gromyko. EX-COMM did not know if Gromyko knew about the missiles or if the Americans knew about the missiles. Kennedy decided not to confront the minister on the issue. Even though the meeting started out about minor world events, the topic quickly shifted to Cuba. Gromyko said that the Soviet Union would help contribute to Cuba's peaceful democracy. Kennedy responded by reading a statement he had made in Septeraber saying that the U.S. would not tolerate any offensive weapons in Cuba. Later that night a dinner was held in Gromyko's honor at the State Department. As this dinner progressed EX-COMM had meetings one floor below the dinner and decided to recommend a blockade against Cuba to the President. Kennedy liked this idea because it gave the Soviets a way out. He also instructed his speechwriters to prepare two speeches to address the nation with, one announcing a blockade and the other announcing an air strike. The President had a big decision to make.
On the 20th, EX-COMM forced John F. Kennedy to make one of two choices: a surgical air strike or quarantine. Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric was quoted saying "Essentially, Mr. President, this is a choice between limited action and unlimited action - and most of us think it is better to start with limited action." However, Kennedy still would not make a decision until the next day.
The next day Kennedy met with his advisors to discuss, in greater detail, the missiles in Cuba. The Strategic Air Command told Kennedy that they could take out all the missiles that they knew about. They could not, however, predict 100 percent success. They also predicted a 10,00 to 20,000 casualty count. This left Kennedy with blockading Cuba as an option. In the speech Kennedy gave the nation, he would use the word "quarantine" instead of "blockade." This was an important decision. A blockade, as defined under international treaties is an act of war. Quarantine, on the other hand, is merely an attempt to keep something unwanted out of a particular area. Under this verbiage, the U.S. could act without declaring war.
On October 22, 1962 at 7:00pm eastern standard time, President Kennedy addressed the nation.2 At the same time, the military was raised to DEFCON3. Jet fighter's took-off from Miami, Florida to be ready for a military retaliation from Cuba. In addition, twenty planes armed with nuclear borabs were in the air ready to strike the USSR. Earlier in the day, Kennedy had sent Khrushchev a copy of his speech. After reading the speech Khrushchev became infuriated. First he was angry at his own military for not successfully hiding the missiles and secondly he acknowledged the American quarantine as an act of war. His first response was to instruct the ships on their way to Cuba not to stop for any reason. Later though, he sent a response to Kennedy: "I must say frankly that the measures indicated in your statement constitutes a serious threat to peace and to the security of nations... We reaffirm that the armaments which are in Cuba, regardless of the classification to which they may belong, are intended solely for defensive purposes...I hope the United States Government will display wisdom and renounce the actions pursued by you, which may lead to cata-strophic consequences for world peace."
Fidel Castro's response to Kennedy's speech was first to mobilize all of Cuba's military. He was not surprised though. The United States was constantly threatening Cuba. Ever since the "Bay of Pigs", Cuba had been in constant fear of invasion. This didn't seem to be out of the ordinary to Castro.
On the 23rd, Kennedy ordered six Crusader jets to fly a low-level reconnaissance mission. This mission, was flown at 350 feet and 350 knots, brought back pictures of missile sites and showed the Soviets testing the missiles for launch. The pictures were so close that you could see the writing on the sides of the missiles. That same day quarantine was unanimously approved by the Organization of American States (OAS). The quarantine was to take effect at 10:00am (EST) on the 24th October, 1962.
By Wednesday October 24th saw the military raised to the highest level ever in United States Military history - DEFCON2. The Soviets sent their ships almost all the way to the blockade line 800 miles off the coast of Cuba. The U.S. ships were instructed to make radio contact first if the line was crossed. If the Soviets did not turn back, a warning shot was to be fired across their bow. As a last resort to stop the Soviets, the U.S. ships were instructed to blow off the rudder to impede forward progress. Twenty-five minutes after the blockade began, Khrushchev turned his ships back. Secretary of State Dean Rusk said "We've been eyeball to eyeball and the other fellow just blinked." This did not mean that the crisis was over. Later that evening Khrushchev wrote Kennedy:
"You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but
rather are advancing an ultimatum and threatening that
if we do not give in to your demanRAB you will use
force.... No Mr. President, I cannot agree to this,
and I think that in your own heart you recognize that
I am correct. I am convinced that in my place you would
act the same way. Therefore the Soviet Government
cannot instruct the captains of Soviet vessels bound
for Cuba to observe the orders of the American naval
forces blockading that Island.... Naturally we will not
simply be bystanders with regard to piratical acts by
American ships on the high seas. We will then be forced
on our part to take the measures we consider necessary
and adequate to protect our rights. We have everything
necessary to do so."
"National security must come first...we can't negotiate with a gun at our head... if they won't remove the missiles and restore status quo ante, we will have to do it ourselves." Kennedy said after politely refusing a temporary pause to the crisis offered by the United Nations on the 25th. The terms were for the Soviets to stop shipping offensive weapons to Cuba for two or three weeks in exchange for the U.S. dropping the quarantine for the same amount of time. Kennedy refused this by simply stating that this would allow the Soviets to strengthen sites already in Cuba.
In the early morning of Friday, October 26th, the U.S. quarantine forces boarded the Marcula. This Lebanese freighter was the first ship to be boarded and searched for contraband in conjunction with the crisis.
Aleksandr Fomin, who was known to be the KGB station chief in Washington, requested a meeting with ABC News correspondent John Scali. Fomin told Scali that there might be a resolution. Fomin proposed the dismantling of Soviet bases under U.N. supervision in exchange for a public pledge from the U.S. not to invade Cuba. AfterwarRAB, Scali went directly to the State Department to inform Roger Hilsman of the meeting. Since Fomin was a high-ranking officer, the U.S. assumed the proposal was an official one from Khrushchev. Later in the day, Scali was sent back to Fomin with a message from Secretary of State Dean Rusk:
"I have reason to believe that the U.S. government sees
real possibilities and supposes that the representatives
of the two governments in New York could work this
matter out with U Thant and with each other. My
impression is, however, that time is very urgent."
Fomin assured Scali that he would convey the message to the "highest Soviet sources." But the most important occurrence on the 26th was a letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy. The letter began to arrive at the White House at 6:00 p.m. but because it had to be translated, it came in four separate parts, the last of which arrived at 9:00 p.m. The letter was clearly written by Khrushchev himself wanting to resolve the crisis. Khrushchev proposed to remove the missiles if Kennedy would publicly announce never to invade Cuba.
You and I should not now pull on the enRAB of the rope in which you have tied a knot of war, because the harder you and I pull, the tighter the knot will become. And a time may come when this knot is tied so tight that the person who tied it is no longer capable of untying it, and then the knot will have to be cut. What that would mean I need not explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly what dread forces our two countries possess.
I propose we, for our part, will declare that our ships bound for Cuba are not carrying any armaments. You will declare that the United States will not invade Cuba with its troops and will not support any other forces which might intend to invade Cuba. Then the necessity of the presence of our military specialists in Cuba will disappear.
On the 27th, on a routine mission over western Alaska, a U-2 picked the wrong star to navigate by and flew off course into Soviet airspace. When the pilot realized his mistake, he immediately radioed for help. By this time the Soviets and Americans had gotten their respective fighter jets in the air. The American F-102's were equipped with nuclear air-to-air missiles. Fortunately the U-2 left Soviet air space before the two groups ever met. At noon a U-2 was shot down over Cuba. The order to launch the missile was given by a Soviet commander in Cuba. By this time, both the US and the USSR were worried about each other's view of the day's events. Fidel Castro was also loosing his nerve. He believed that the Americans were gaining information for an invasion within the next 24 to 72 hours.
He believed that only an invasion or a trade (for missiles in Turkey) would now succeed. He also agreed to enhance pressure by increasing the frequency of low-level flights over Cuba from twice per day to once every two hours.
On the 28th, Khrushchev announces over Radio Moscow that he has agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba to avoid the invasion of that country.
The tensions eased on a little on Sunday, October 28, but the crisis was not over yet. The United States and the Soviet Union still had some terms of agreement to be decided. In the final negotiations Castro, who felt betrayed by Khrushchev, tried to stop the removal and inspection of the missiles. With the help of the United Nations (U.N.), Castro backed down and the two sides reached an agreement. A U.N. inspection team was assigned to monitor the removal of the missiles and the demolition of the missile bases in Cuba. The Soviet Navy shipped the missiles back to the Soviet Union on the decks of the ships so that American reconnaissance planes could count the missiles and make sure that all had been removed.
The only unresolved part of the agreement was the removal of the IL-28 "Beagle" medium-range borabers. EX-COMM had decided to let this minor issue slide during previous negotiations due to the larger picture. But, in Khrushchev's letter on October 28, 1962 he stated the Soviets would remove all "weapons which you describe as offensive."3 This allowed Kennedy to successfully argue for the removal of the borabers. Beginning on Noveraber 20, the planes were finally dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union. The next day Kennedy formally ended the quarantine and lowered Strategic Command's Defense Condition from DEFCON 2 to DEFCON 4.