The Cuban missile crisis

“WE ARE EYEBALL TO EYEBALL, AND I THINK THE OTHER FELLOW JUST BLINKED”

“You cannot fail to remember that both Hitler and Napoleon used such language in their day when speaking with small countries,” dictated an agitated Nikita Khrushchev to his stenographer. “Do you really think even now that the USA is made of one dough, and countries that you threaten of another?”

It was 24 October 1962, one of the tensest days of the Cuban missile crisis, and the Soviet leader was composing a response to his American counterpart, John F Kennedy. Two days earlier Kennedy had gone on TV to announce to his country, and the world, the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. He demanded their removal and declared a naval blockade of the island, euphemistically calling it a quarantine – in the language of international law, a blockade would have meant war. On 23 October, Kennedy also sent Khrushchev a private letter demanding that he turn back his ships heading for Cuba.

Khrushchev, now in a fighting mood, responded by threatening Kennedy with a nuclear attack. “If any aggressor should attack Cuba, in that case the weapons themselves will start firing in retaliation,” read his further dictation. This was already Khrushchev’s second letter to Kennedy composed that day. The first one was official, couched in diplomatic terms. This much longer missive of almost seven typed pages was supposed to be confidential, and Khrushchev did not conceal his frustration.

The letter was to be dispatched via Colonel Georgii Bolshakov of the GRU, an acquaintance of the president’s brother, Robert. But first the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the country’s ruling body, which Khrushchev had packed with his clients and supporters, had to approve it. That would have to wait until the next day, 25 October. But the letter never reached the Kennedys and would remain unknown to scholars