16 Oct 1962
16 October 1962. In Washington, President Kennedy is briefed on Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba. For the next thirteen days Washington, Moscow, Havana and, less visibly, Turkey are at the center of the world.
Thirteen Days, Two Stories
In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union came closer to nuclear war than at any other moment of the Cold War. Each government explained the crisis to its own public in its own way.
This chapter follows both accounts side by side, then what the records of both sides confirm, and then some of the less obvious lines that lead out of those thirteen days.
Every line drawn below is a sourced link. Lines marked “according to” are one side’s account, not established fact.
22 Oct 1962
The U.S. story
On 22 October Kennedy told the nation that offensive missile sites were being built in Cuba. According to the U.S. government, the crisis was caused by this secret Soviet deployment, which Moscow had code-named Operation Anadyr.
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.
27 Oct 1962
The Soviet story
On 27 October Khrushchev answered with a different map: U.S. Jupiter missiles already stood in Turkey, on the Soviet border. According to the Soviet government, that deployment was the real cause of the crisis.
Your missiles are located in Turkey. You are disturbed over Cuba. You say that this disturbs you because it is 90 miles by sea from the coast of the United States of America. But Turkey adjoins us; our sentries patrol back and forth and see each other.
25 Oct 1962
On 25 October Pope John XXIII made a radio appeal for peace to the leaders of both blocs. He headed the Catholic Church, of which Kennedy was a member; the Holy See later recalled the appeal as a plea made with humanity “on the brink of an atomic world war”.
Apr 1963
What both sides confirm
Robert Kennedy’s memo and Ambassador Dobrynin’s cable, written for rival governments, both record that the missiles in Turkey were part of the settlement. The Jupiters came out in April 1963, so this link carries sources from both perspectives.
“I think that in order to withdraw these bases from Turkey,” R. Kennedy said, “we need 4-5 months.”
20 Jun 1963
During the crisis the two leaders struggled to read each other’s intentions. In June 1963 their governments agreed on a direct link between Washington and Moscow, the hotline, which began as a teletype circuit rather than a telephone.
The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 compellingly underscored the importance of prompt, direct communication between heads of state.
11 Apr 1963
Spring 1963 closes the story. The Jupiters leave Turkey in April; on 11 April the Pope issues the encyclical Pacem in Terris, addressed to “all men of good will”; the hotline agreement follows in June.
The long tail
The Jupiter was developed under Wernher von Braun, who in 1960 moved to NASA as first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. In 2006 NASA funded a young company, SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Each line is a sourced link, not a judgment.
One more thread. Around 1455 Johannes Gutenberg printed the Latin Bible in Mainz, the scripture of Christianity, whose largest church was led in 1962 by the Pope who appealed for peace. A connection is not evidence of influence, but every step of it can be checked.