When the Russians Blinked: The U.S. Maritime Response to the Cuban Missile Crisis in Bloomington, MN

This paper concerns the period in October 1962, when U.S. aerial surveillance revealed that the Cubans were busily setting up sites for missiles delivered to Cuba by the USSR. Major Young notes that surprisingly little has been written about the military response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, as it became known. In conducting his research, the author was able to have declassified many formerly top secret operation plans and command diaries of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units. Major Young traces the history of the U.S. - Cuban relationship over the years, and the Kennedy Administration's response. He also analyzes naval planning by a study of applicable maps, intelligence reports, and troop deployment orders for a contingency aimed at Cuba. Finally, the author discusses the probable effect on Russian leaders of an American invasion of Cuba and a quarantine of Soviet vessels bound for Cuba. Young concludes his paper with an assessment of the effects that the crisis continues to have on relationships with Cuba and Latin America as a whole.