"In this discussion there is a giant missing "detail": that the Turkish Missile Crisis of 1962 was caused by the decision of the USA government to install nuclear armed first-strike "decapitation" missiles in several sites in Turkey near to to the USSR border, missiles with a very short flight time to Moscow.
The only option according to nuclear doctrine other than total surrender left to the USSR government was to find a way to do the same, and they chose to start slowly to install an equivalent capability in Cuba, hoping that the USA would then negotiate. It was admirable restraint by the USSR despite a fatally aggressive act of war by the USA.
That these missiles were there along with operational warheads and ready to launch has been described in an uncontested personal memory of the USA officer in charge:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/10/05/author-recounts-world-on-the-brink-of-war-in-my-turkish-missile-crisis/
The masterful propaganda coup of the USA to blame solely the USSR for replying in kind to what they had just done themselves as an act of war seems to still persist.
There is an event darker "detail"...
Some versions report that President Kennedy was entirely surprised when his USSR counterpart told him that they just had to put some missiles in Cuba because the USA had installed many first-strike "decapitation" missiles in Turkey, and had refused to negotiate.
These histories report that Kennedy double checked this and discovered that this was entirely true, and a large budget had been spent to build the launch sites and nuclear armed first-strike missiles had been moved to the borders of the USSR not just without the President's orders, but without the President being informed.
Some other histories say that President Kennedy had just discovered the launch sites in Turkey and had ordered their dismantling.
If the launch sites has been built and the nuclear warheads had been moved without the President knowing it was obviously treason of the worst sort, treason that had to involve some people at the highest levels of the military and civilian authority, because the amount of money involved and the moving of nuclear weapons, and concealing this from the President, required no less.
Apparently President Kennedy and his brother the Attorney General were determined to purge the traitors, but entirely coincidentally they were both assassinated in murky circumstances.
The only option according to nuclear doctrine other than total surrender left to the USSR government was to find a way to do the same, and they chose to start slowly to install an equivalent capability in Cuba, hoping that the USA would then negotiate. It was admirable restraint by the USSR despite a fatally aggressive act of war by the USA.
That these missiles were there along with operational warheads and ready to launch has been described in an uncontested personal memory of the USA officer in charge:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2012/10/05/author-recounts-world-on-the-brink-of-war-in-my-turkish-missile-crisis/
The masterful propaganda coup of the USA to blame solely the USSR for replying in kind to what they had just done themselves as an act of war seems to still persist.
There is an event darker "detail"...
Some versions report that President Kennedy was entirely surprised when his USSR counterpart told him that they just had to put some missiles in Cuba because the USA had installed many first-strike "decapitation" missiles in Turkey, and had refused to negotiate.
These histories report that Kennedy double checked this and discovered that this was entirely true, and a large budget had been spent to build the launch sites and nuclear armed first-strike missiles had been moved to the borders of the USSR not just without the President's orders, but without the President being informed.
Some other histories say that President Kennedy had just discovered the launch sites in Turkey and had ordered their dismantling.
If the launch sites has been built and the nuclear warheads had been moved without the President knowing it was obviously treason of the worst sort, treason that had to involve some people at the highest levels of the military and civilian authority, because the amount of money involved and the moving of nuclear weapons, and concealing this from the President, required no less.
Apparently President Kennedy and his brother the Attorney General were determined to purge the traitors, but entirely coincidentally they were both assassinated in murky circumstances.
