History’s greatest blunders.
Those of you that still remember, think back to 1961, and the prospect of a hot war with nukes was transpiring on the television, Kennedy authorised the Bay of Pigs invasion, though Castro had a mandate of the people, he felt threatened with the American Nuclear Power neighbour who was hostile to the new regime that deposed Batista, Batista who was despised by most Cubans. The Russians under Khrushchev were only too happy to supply nuclear arms to the Cubans to even up the ledger, the Americans were aghast, but Khrushchev rightly pointed out that NATO countries in Europe were nuclear armed and were only a hop-skip and a jump from Moscow, The Russians knew too well, the cause of fascism/imperialism in Europe, WW2 was a near thing too, the Germans were nearly at the gates of Moscow, but for Divine Providence.
When the Cuban activity was unmasked, and Kennedy came to the realisation that Castro with Khrushchev’s help was installing Nuclear offensive weapons, Kennedy winced. Thinking strategically, Kennedy’s master stroke, was the deployment of Jupiter-C Missiles, in Turkey. Khrushchev immediately lost face and had to retreat for public opinion turned to Kennedy’s camp. Kennedy was celebrated as a wunderkind, Khrushchev was jealous and annoyed at Kennedy, for upending him, but the biggest thing that bothered Khrushchev was that in addition to blockading arms, Kennedy also blockaded food and other critical supplies to the Cuban people. The blockade was a blockade in name only, in actual fact it was a siege, to impel the Cuban people to drive Castro out, I believe people also died of hunger. The desired effect failed and Fidel Castro became one of the longest surviving Presidents in history – entrenched by a failed US Government Diplomacy.
Post script:
Kennedy the celebrated President became public enemy number one for Khrushchev and he (Khrushev) had his revenge in 1963. Kennedy’s brother Bobby (Robert) Kennedy Jr. was next Because Khrushchev not only wanted to remove JFK, he wanted to eliminate the Kennedy Line as Communists with a vendetta will do, Edward Kennedy could have been next and so had to renounce ever run for the office of US President.
Another thing, the weapons that the Russian’s supplied to Cuba, were only designed for deployment and discharge, the Russian military designers never expected to withdraw the equipment without discharge, causing a mountain of frustration for the Russian advisers in fact it was a complete debacle, so Cuba essentially had to exist unarmed facing off to the American leviathan, Yes, the Turkish Jupiter-C missiles, had to retreat to staging areas in other NATO countries but the Soviet Union still faced the Americans in Europe and the United States from Alaska on two containing fronts. Castro and Khrushchev should have had a publicist!
Jupiter-C Missile assembly line, developed by the US Army it was capable of laying waste to whole cities. Picture Courtesy Marshall Retirees Association
