The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis: Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Missiles of November

by Sergo Mikoyan, Svetlana Savranskaya (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804762021
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	04/25/2014
Series:	Cold War International History Project
Pages:	616
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sergo Mikoyan, who died in 2010, was a historian specializing in Latin America and in Soviet-Latin American relations. Svetlana Savranskaya is a research fellow at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Table of Contents

List of Documents x

Series Preface James Hershberg xiii

Editor's Preface and Acknowledgments xix

List of Frequently Used Abbreviations xxii

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 The 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 Made 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 Gifts 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

Editorial Reviews

"Expertly edited by Svetlana Savranskaya, the director of Russian programs at the National Security Archive, the book is an invaluable and essential resource for understanding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Summing Up: Essential."—D. J. Dunn, CHOICE

"This marvelous volume by Mikoyan's late son, appearing only now in English, recounts the tough negotiations that followed between his father, the Cuban leadership, and the Kennedy administration . . . The book's appendix features 50 documents carefully selected from Mikoyan's personal papers and Soviet archives that offer many fascinating glimpses of some leading personalities of the Cold War era."—Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

"Expertly edited by Svetlana Savranskaya, the director of Russian programs at the National Security Archive, the book is an invaluable and essential resource for understanding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Summing Up: Essential."

CHOICE - D. J. Dunn

"This marvelous volume by Mikoyan's late son, appearing only now in English, recounts the tough negotiations that followed between his father, the Cuban leadership, and the Kennedy administration . . . The book's appendix features 50 documents carefully selected from Mikoyan's personal papers and Soviet archives that offer many fascinating glimpses of some leading personalities of the Cold War era."

Foreign Affairs - Richard Feinberg