The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Missiles of November
Sergo A. Mikoyan; Svetlana Savranskaya
Related Topics: Cold War, Latin America, Caribbean, Russia and Eurasia, Soviet Union
Based on secret transcripts of top-level diplomacy undertaken by the number-two Soviet leader, Anastas Mikoyan, to settle the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, this book rewrites conventional history. The "missiles of October" and "13 days" were only half the story: the nuclear crisis actually stretched well into November 1962 as the Soviets secretly planned to leave behind in Cuba over 100 tactical nuclear weapons, then reversed themselves because of obstreperous behavior by Fidel Castro. The highly-charged negotiations with the Cuban leadership, who bitterly felt sold out by Soviet concessions to the United States, were led by Mikoyan.
Adding personal crisis, Mikoyan's wife of more than 40 years died the day he arrived in Havana, yet he stayed to resolve the crisis through direct talks in Havana, New York, and Washington, amid constant communications with Moscow.
The author, Sergo Mikoyan, who served as his father's personal secretary during these travels, vividly recalls how the Soviet relationship with revolutionary Cuba began and how it was shaped by the crisis.
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Chapter List
Introduction: The Overlooked Crisis between Moscow and Havana 1
Chapter 1: Why Mikoyan? 11
From a Mountain Village to the Kremlin 11
The War and the Postwar Issues 17
Avoiding Stalin’s Traps 21
De-Stalinization and Khrushchev’s Reforms 22
Mikoyan’s Diplomacy 25
Personality and Character 30
Chapter 2: The Journey across the Ocean: The Soviet Discovery of Cuba 39
The Cuban Revolution and the Beginning of U.S.-Cuban Confrontation 39
Contours of the New Cuba 44
Was the Conflict with the United States Inevitable? 45
The Early Reforms 50
Castro Invites Mikoyan 53
Chapter 3: Ten Days That Changed the Face of the Hemisphere 61
Havana, My Love 61
Flying over the Island of Cuba 65
The Die Is Cast 69
Meeting with Hemingway 75
Castro’s and Mikoyan’s Impressions of Our Visit 79
Only Forward! 83
Chapter 4: Th e Leap Over the Ocean 89
How It All Started 89
So Why the Missiles? 94
The Nuclear Balance 99
Secrecy and Deception 103
Persuading the Cubans 107
What If the Agreement Was Public? 110
The Secret Is Revealed 113
The Outcome That Should Have Been Predicted 113
Chapter 5: Operation Anadyr: Military Success, Political Trap 121
Origins of the Idea 121
The Transportation of Troops to Cuba 124
The Deployment and Cooperation with the Cuban Armed Forces 127
The Submarine Mission 136
Open Confrontation 138
The Moment of Truth 143
The Outcome 145
Chapter 6: When the World Was Hanging by a Thread 147
The Potential Cost of a Misunderstanding 147
Mikoyan Flies to Havana 155
Deciding in the Kremlin 164
Chapter 7: Storm Clouds Over Havana 173
Havana’s Military Aesthetic 173
War or Peace? 176
The Path to Compromise 182
An Unacceptable Risk 186
The Tragic Start of the Dialogue in Havana 191
Chapter 8: Mikoyan Face to Face with Fidel 195
The Kremlin’s Gift s to the White House 195
Mikoyan’s First Conversations in Havana 202
The Crisis within the Crisis 207
The Il-28 Crisis 213
Castro Fights for the Nuclear Warheads 223
The Breaking Point 227
Farewell to Havana 231
Chapter 9: Drawing Conclusions in the United States 235
Meetings in New York 235
The White House: Anastas Mikoyan and John Kennedy 242
Meetings with Rusk, Udall, and Robert Kennedy 257
Postscript, by Svetlana Savranskaya 261
Documents 269
Notes 565
Index 579
