Student Question
Did the US exaggerate the danger of Soviet missile installation in Cuba?
Quick answer:
The United States likely exaggerated the threat of Soviet missile installations in Cuba to justify its extensive military response and to pressure the Soviets into withdrawing the missiles. This included elevating military readiness to Defcon 2 and dispersing B-52 bombers. While the missiles posed a significant threat due to limited Soviet ICBM capabilities, the US may have overstated the situation to strengthen its negotiating position and emphasize supposed concessions, such as removing missiles from Turkey.
One might suggest that the US did exaggerate the danger in order to justify their rather elaborate and extensive reaction to the threat the missiles posed. The US military, in particular strategic command, elevated their readiness status to Defcon 2 and huge numbers of strategic forces were placed in the highest state of readiness outside of actual wartime. Most of the US fleet of B-52 bombers were dispersed and placed on 15 minute alert.
These actions may in fact not have been justified but may also have been taken in order to demonstrate to the Soviets how seriously the US were taking the threat and in order to put pressure on the Soviets to withdraw the missiles.
The Kennedy administration and others may very well have tried to exaggerate the danger in order to push others to recognize the danger of the missiles as many in the international community did...
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not in fact believe that the Russians were placing medium range missiles in Cuba.
Especially given that the United States already felt that a similar capability was available to them thanks to the deployment of Polaris missiles on board ballistic missile submarines, their posturing may have been exaggerated in order to suggest that their removal of the missiles in Turkey really was a major concession when in fact it was not.
Was it more dangerous for the US to have Soviet missiles in Cuba?
Yes, it was.
At this time in the Cold War, Intercontinantal Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) were not yet fully developed. This meant that the Soviets did not have large numbers of missiles that could strike the US from Soviet territory. The only way for the Soviets to launch a massive nuclear strike on the US would be through the use of bombers. This would, of course, be dangerous, but bombers can be shot down.
If the missiles in Cuba had been fully installed, the Soviets would have been able to reach practically the entire United States with missiles. The only major city that would have been out of their range was Seattle. This means that the US would have been much more vulnerable to attack.
Therefore,Soviet missiles in Cuba would have been (at least in 1962) a bigger threat to the United States than the US without missiles there.