Cuban Missile Crisis Causes, Timeline & Significance

High altitude aerial reconnaissance photograph of medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) launch site number 2 in San Cristobal, Cuba, 14 October 1962. Low-level aerial photograph of Mariel Naval port, Cuba, taken 2 November 1962, showing missile support equipment at the port being prepared for loading on Soviet ships for removal from Cuba. Photographers and cameramen swarm President Kennedy at his desk in the Oval Office upon signing the Cuba Quarantine order, 23 October 1962. Low altitude reconnaissance photograph of medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) launch site number 1 in San Cristobal, Cuba showing missile shelter tents, launch pad, transporters, and other equipment. As the unified commander for the Caribbean, Dennison was responsible for readying Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy assault forces for a possible invasion of Cuba. U.S. destroyers and frigates, kept on station through underway replenishment by oilers and stores ships, maintained a month-long naval quarantine of the island.

Soviet military deployments

• With President Kennedy making known his aggressive intentions of a possible airstrike followed by an invasion on Cuba, Khrushchev sought a diplomatic compromise.
• Castro reaffirmed Cuba’s right to self-defense and said that all of its weapons were defensive and Cuba would not allow an inspection.
• After the loss of a CIA U-2 over the Soviet Union in May 1960, it was thought that if another U-2 were shot down, an Air Force aircraft apparently being used for a legitimate military purpose would be easier to explain than a CIA flight.
• The captain of the submarine, Valentin Savitsky, had no way of knowing that the depth charges were non-lethal “practice” rounds, intended as warning shots to force him to surface.