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Executive Committee of the National Security Committee during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuba's National Capitol Building, January 2010.

Central America and Caribbean

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Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

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Photograph of Dean Rusk

Rusk, Dean

1909- 1994

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United States. Embassy (Turkey)

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Photograph of John F. Kennedy in 1963

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)

1917- 1963

Fidel Castro, 1959.

Castro, Fidel

1926- 2016

Photograph of Robert McNamara

McNamara, Robert S.

1916- 2009

Cuban Foreign Relations

President Ronald Reagan, Vice-President Bush, and oviet General Secretary Gorbachev

United States-Soviet Relations

China and Latin America and the Caribbean

Nikita Khrushchev Collection

Sino-Indian Border War, 1962

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September 15, 1962	Instruction from M. Zakharov and Bakayev to the Commander of the Ship and the chief of the Military Contingent concerning the Defense of a Transport Ship These instructions provide regulations regarding the procedures in case of piratical acts committed by Cuban or US "counterrevolutionaries." They include information about how and when to use antiaircraft mounts in defense.
1962	F. Zozulya, 'Memo on the Operation of Foreign Naval Vessels Against Soviet Ships in 1962' A memo describing the different operations that foreign naval vessels made against Soviet ships in 1962. The memo includes information about American, British, and South Korean vessels.
September 1962	Letter, Chief of General Staff M. V. Zakharov and S.P. Ivanov to Comrade F.R. Kozlov A report describing the systemic overflights that US aircrafts made over Soviet ships during September 1962.
November 28, 1962	Letter, Chief of the Operations Group in the Port of Baltiysk Vice Admiral Mel'nikov to Comrade S.P. Ivanov, attaching a trip report of the motorship 'Volgoles' A detailed report following the motorship Volgoles from 4 October to 24 November 1962. The report includes information about US overflights and inspections of the motorship. Various shortcomings of the Soviet effort in Cuba are also mentioned.
October 28, 1962	Note, R. Malinovsky to Comrade N.S. Khruschev [about a US U-2 Aircraft] A letter to Khrushchev detailing the shooting down of a US U-2 aircraft that attempted to take photographs of Soviet troops on the island of Cuba.
December 1962	Report of the Commander of the 51st Missile Division concerning the Operations of the Division during the Period from 12 July through 1 December 1962 Commander of the 51st Missile Division General-Major Igor Demyanovich Statsenko's detailed postmortem on the deployment of Soviet missiles to Cuba in mid-1962 and their removal later that year following the nuclear confrontation with the United States. The report includes an attachment titled: "Some Questions of Operational and Tactical Concealment during the Operation of the Division on the Island of Cuba."
2022	Antonio Mariani, 'The 36th Strategic Interdiction Brigade: An Italian Contribution to the Cold War' (Excerpts) These excerpts from the memoirs of a former member of Italy’s 36th Air Brigade, published by the Italian Air Force, provides fascinating perspective on the shock felt by officers when they received the dismantling instructions and then how they planned and carried out their tasks. The following sentences convey the emotional reactions: “The dismantling, for those who experienced it, was a real demolition. A frenetic destructive activity pervaded the military community which, almost with anger and a certain sadism, destroyed and reduced to useless remains everything on which it had studied, worked and operated.” As the excerpts makes clear, not everything was destroyed and junked. Consistent with the Joint Staff’s original proposals, sensitive components, such as the warheads were returned to the U.S., while other parts of the missiles were salvaged and made available to other organizations. Some equipment went to Italy’s “San Marco” space research program, just as Prime Minister Fanfani had proposed to President Kennedy during their meeting in January 1963. To what extent the dismantling procedure in Turkey paralleled the one in Italy remains unclear, at least on the basis of available documentation.
April 25, 1963	Note from Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Kennedy In a hand-written note, McNamara reports that the last Jupiter missile in Turkey “came down yesterday” and that “The last Jupiter warhead will be flown out of Turkey on Saturday.”
April 17, 1963	American Embassy Ankara Telegram 1270 to the Secretary of State, Washington, DC Reporting on the visit of the Polaris submarine U.S.S. Sam Houston to Izmir, the Embassy finds it to be a “success from all points of view.” The press provided “maximum favorable coverage,” with one headline stating that the “Submarine which scares Soviets is in Izmir.” The press coverage emphasized the “power of atomic sub weapons as deterrent,” the “warmth of welcome extended to ship,” and the “importance of the dignitaries” who visited the ship. This document is possibly an incomplete cross reference copy, and the original version was not found.
April 10, 1963	American Embassy Ankara Telegram 1234 to the Secretary of State, Washington, DC The U.S. Embassy in Ankara informs the State Department that the exchange of notes has been completed. The agreement text has yet to be declassified.