Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
02 November 1962
I've been rather busy lately with working overtime, school, and meine Schatz. I've taken over a rather responsible position and have had to work some evenings to do it justice. Enuf for that. [The oblique references to work were related to the Cuban Missile Crisis.] Mike Hopkins made second, and says hello. JD Becker also made 2nd.
What would you think if I were to extend a year or so, and maybe re-enlist? You asked how much I'll make a month. As a 2nd under 4 (years) I'll get about $160 per month. I'll get another $36 per month for meals, so I can eat out of the chow hall when I want. A Boost to morale!
I'm cutting a wisdom tooth now. It's thru the gum, so it's OK. My final in German is tomorrow. I've already signed up for German II.
We've been on alert since Kennedy's speech, [At 1:00AM, Wednesday, Oct 23, 1962, in Germany.] and haven't been able to leave the immediate area. So I still haven't gotten a chance to visit John.
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Cuban Missile Crisis NOW HEAR THIS! In May of 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev conceived the idea of placing ballistic missiles in Cuba to overcome the emerging lead of the US in the missile race. It is ironic that John F. Kennedy's campaign for the presidency had claimed that a missile gap existed and that the US was behind. It helped propel him into the White House. Krushchev envisioned the insertion of missiles into Cuba as a deterrent to any potential US attack on the USSR, and a bonus protection against a feared US sponsored invasion of his ally Fidel Castro. Remember, the bungled Bay of Pigs invasion had recently occurred in the spring of 1961. By August 1962, John McCone, the CIA director, suspected Soviet missiles were being secreted into Cuba since new military construction had been reported. However, his views were dismissed by top decision-makers because of his hawkish background. On October 14th, US U-2 spy planes photographed a missile on a launching pad. Seeing was believing. President Kennedy was informed and a small group of top national security advisors, the Ex-Comm or Executive Committee of the National Security Council, was assembled to discuss strategies. The Soviets placed 42 medium range (300-1200 miles) and 24 intermediate range (1200-3500 miles) ballistic missiles, 22,000 troops and technicians and light bombers in Cuba. The alternative courses of action were debated including a swift invasion and surgical air strikes - the latter were dismissed when the USAF could not guarantee success. The Ex-Comm also rejected doing nothing since it would not prevent more missiles from arriving. JFK chose a naval blockade but softened the terminology to a "quarantine." President Kennedy went on television at 7:00 PM Tuesday, October 22, 1962, to address the nation explaining what the Soviets had done and announcing the naval quarantine around Cuba to prevent the arrival of more offensive weapons. Kennedy warned that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba would be considered as an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union. He demanded the Russians remove all their offensive weapons from Cuba. Kennedy and Krushchev were staring "eyeball to eyeball" at World War III without benefit of a "hotline." People throughout the world listened, prayed and trembled in fear of global nuclear war. The two leaders handled communications via letters cabled between the two capitals through their Embassies or even Western Union. (One of the by products of this experience would be the creation of the "Hotline" for any future crises.) The President ordered stepped up low-level reconnaissance flights every two hours. On Thursday, the 25th, he ordered the military to go to DEFCON 2 where Defense Condition 1 is a state of war. On Friday, October 26th, Krushchev sent a breakthrough letter offering to remove the missiles and Soviet personnel if the US would guarantee it would not invade Cuba. Despite Soviet protests about international law, Soviet ships bound for Cuba carrying possible "offensive weapons and associated materiel" steered clear of the quarantine zone. The most serious day of the crisis was Saturday, October 27th, when a U-2 was shot down over Cuba. When communications became urgent that Saturday, the leaders just broadcast their letters on the radio although so-called "back-channel" messages were exchanged, too. Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin and Robert F. Kennedy had been meeting secretly since October 23rd to try to defuse the crisis. A second letter from Krushchev arrived on Saturday, demanding the removal of US missiles from Turkey. (Kennedy had attempted earlier to remove those obsolete US missiles from Turkey, but met with internal resistance and also objections from the Turks.) On October 27th, Dobrynin cabled Krushchev that Robert Kennedy had assured him the US would remove the US missiles from Turkey in several months if that action would be kept secret by the Russians and the Russians would remove their offensive weapons.
Finally, on Sunday, October 28th, Krushchev "blinked" in the ocular confrontational analogy, announcing he would remove the missiles and expressing his trust the US would not invade Cuba. He refrained from making any reference to the Turkish missiles as per the back-channel communication. By late November the crisis was over. Kennedy removed the naval quarantine on November 20th after aerial inspections verified the missile removals. Navy ships and helicopters also would observe the departing Soviet ships with their missiles and crates of bombers onboard. |
The author is constrained from discussing classified duties. Suggest the reader with an historical interest explore a fascinating description of events during the crisis published by the National Security Agency. It allows a rare glimpse, albeit generalized and sanitized ("Sanitized" conjures up something filtered by Kotex; instead, since the material is pre-shrunk too as well as cleaned up, it ought to be called "Sanforized."), into the secret world of Sigint or signals intelligence.
NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Courtesy of the National Security Agency.