At this point in time, through the tenseness of the situation, Khrushchev offered a possible deal as a means to get out of this conflict while still saving face. Khrushchev’s deal involved and American pledge not to invade Cuba. As long as the United States was willing to publicly pledge not to invade Cuba, the Soviets would be willing to dismantle the weapons that the President’s administration deemed offensive. The deal was first mentioned as a possibility by a Soviet intelligence officer named Aleksandr Feklisov.(Schesinger p.7) Feklisov proposal seemed adequate enough to President Kennedy and the Ex Comm committee and did not require the United States to give much ground abroad. Few states globally favored a U.S. invasion of Cuba any way and the missiles would be removed under UN inspection.(Schesinger p.7)
However following the heels of this plea for negotiation, terrible news brought the conflict to its tensest point and its climax. On Saturday October 27, an American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba by Soviet SA-2 fire. The pilot of the U-2 airplane was killed. In addition to the down of the aircraft, Cuban antiaircraft weapons had fired upon other American aircraft. These planes were flying at treetop level and one of these planes was hit but not downed. None of these planes had any means of protecting themselves, but now President Kennedy was under great provide these reconnaissance planes with precisely that kind of protection.(Fursenko & Naftali p.276-9)
On top of that, Khrushchev cabled a new proposal to the White House only a day after the first modest proposal was received. This proposal was far more demanding than the first one. The proposal not only called for an American pledge not to invade Cuba now or at any time in the future, but it also demanded that U.S. Jupiter missiles be removed from silos in Turkey as a condition towards the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. Both operations were to be done under UN inspection.(Fursenko & Naftali p.277)
Kennedy’s reaction to this new letter was “He didn’t say that, did he?” “That wasn’t in the letter we received, was it?”(Fursenko & Naftali p.277) Khrushchev had upped the anti in this new proposal and had taken a much firm stance then only a day before. Some members of Ex Comm even doubted if Khrushchev was still in control of the situation in the Kremlin. Removing the missiles from Turkey, as part of a negotiation to remove Soviet missiles in Cuba would have to been done without consulting NATO whom the missiles were pledged to defend.(Cheney p. 98-9) Though the missiles were obsolete, how would feel about the American pledge to defend them against Soviet aggression if they were to be removed? How would NATO react? Such a drastic removal could lead to serious fracturing of NATO alliance. Negotiations would have to be conducted fast. In the negotiations that would follow, both sides would have to be satisfied and both sides would have to be able to save face. The President decides to send his brother Robert F. Kennedy to negotiate with Washington’s Soviet ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin.(Hershburg p.3)
Robert Kennedy account of the meeting between the two officials from both superpowers reads as follows directly from his own memoirs.
“At the request of Secretary Rusk, I telephoned Ambassador Dobrynin at approximately 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, October 27th. I asked him if he would come to the Justice Department at a quarter of eight.
We met in my office. I told him first that we understood that the work was continuing on the Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Further, I explained to him that in the last two hours we had found that our planes flying over Cuba had been fired upon and that one of our U-2’s had been shot down and the pilot killed. I said these men were flying unarmed planes.
I told him that this was an extremely serious turn in events. We would have to make certain decisions within the next 12 or possibly 24 hours. There was a very little time left. If the Cubans were shooting at our planes, then we were going to shoot back. This could not help but bring on further incidents and that he had better understand the full implications of this matter.
He raised the point that the argument the Cubans were making was that we were violating Cuban air space. I replied that if we had not been violating Cuban air space then we would still be believing what he and Khrushchev had said–that there were no long-range missiles in Cuba. In any case I said that this matter was far more serious than the air space over Cuba and involved peoples all over the world.
I said that he had better understand the situation and he had better communicate that understanding to Mr. Khrushchev. Mr. Khrushchev and he had misled us. The Soviet Union had secretly established missile bases in Cuba while at the same time proclaiming, privately and publicly, that this would never be done. I said those missile bases had to go and they had to go right away. We had to have a commitment by at least tomorrow that those bases would be removed. This was not an ultimatum, I said, but just a statement of fact. He should understand that if they did not remove those bases then we would remove them. His country might take retaliatory actions but he should understand that before this was over, while there might be dead Americans there would also be dead Russians.
He then asked me what offer we were making. I said a letter had just been transmitted to the Soviet Embassy, which stated in substance that the missile bases should be dismantled and all offensive weapons should be removed from Cuba. In return, if Cuba and Castro and the Communists ended their subversive activities in other Central and Latin-American countries, we would agree to keep peace in the Caribbean and not permit an invasion from American soil.
He then asked me about Khrushchev’s other proposal dealing with the removal of the missiles from Turkey. I replied that there could be no quid pro quo — no deal of this kind could be made. This was a matter that had to be considered by NATO and that it was up to NATO to make the decision. I said it was completely impossible for NATO to take such a step under the present threatening position of the Soviet Union. If some time elapsed — and per your instructions, I mentioned four or five months — I said I was sure that these matters could be resolved satisfactorily. (This last sentence did not appear in Kennedy’s actual memoirs as a result of its sensitive nature in revealing information that was still considered top secret and classified at the time of the publication of RFK’s memoirs on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days in 1967.)(Hershburg p.9)
Per your instructions I repeated that there could be no deal of any kind and that any steps toward easing tensions in other parts of the world largely depended on the Soviet Union and Mr. Khrushchev taking action in Cuba and taking it immediately.
I repeated to him that this matter could not wait and that he had better contact Mr. Khrushchev and have a commitment from him by the next day to withdraw the missile bases under United Nations supervision for otherwise, I said, there would be drastic consequences.”(Kennedy p.254-9)
The terms of the deal outlined by Dobrynin and Kennedy were as follows; in exchange for an American pledge that the United States would not invade Cuba, the Soviet Union, under the supervision of a United Nations inspection team, would remove all weapons from the island of Cuba that the United States deemed as offensive. These weapons would include all ICBM and MRBM located within the borders of Cuba. Along with the missiles, the presence of Soviet military forces would also be removed. Secretly, the attorney general also assured the Soviet ambassador that the American nuclear Jupiter missiles in Turkey would also be removed, under the context of a NATO withdrawal of the missiles. The withdrawal of these missiles from Turkey would consequentially appear to have nothing to do with the crisis in Cuba. Withdrawal of the missiles under such a pretext as Soviet threats and aggression would potentially harm American leadership in NATO and the faith of American allies as to its pledge to protect and aid them, particularly Turkey.
Thus the deal was complete and when Khrushchev received the terms the following day, he quickly broadcast the terms of the agreement over Moscow radio as to prevent a surprise event from disrupting the agreement. By the end of the day both sides were relieved and the crisis was seemingly averted. The worst of the situation was over.
Moscow’s account of the transgressions between the Soviet Washington ambassador and Kennedy has resulted in some controversy as to how the negotiations truly progressed. Khrushchev’s account of the meeting between the two negotiators in his memoirs Khrushchev Remember’s are as follows:
“The climax came after five or six days, when our ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin, reported that the President’s brother, Robert Kennedy, had come to see him on an unofficial visit. Dobrynin’s report went something like this:
Robert Kennedy looked exhausted. One could see from his eyes that he had not slept for days. He himself said that he had not been home for six days and nights. ‘The President is in a grave situation,’ Robert Kennedy said, ‘and does not know how to get out of it. We are under very severe stress. In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba. Probably at this very moment the President is sitting down to write a message to Chairman Khrushchev. We want to ask you, Mr. Dobrynin, to pass President Kennedy’s message to Chairman Khrushchev through unofficial channels. President Kennedy implores Chairman Khrushchev to accept his offer and to take into consideration the peculiarities of the American system. Even though the President himself is very much against starting a war over Cuba, an irreversible chain of events could occur against his will. That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating this conflict. If the situation continues much longer, the President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control.’”(Khurschev & Talbott p.204)
While it is highly unlikely that the American military was ever on the verge of taking control of the United States government; all living members of Ex Comm at the time of this publication deny any possibility of this occurring, it was true that the United States military was pushing for an aggressive approach in resolving the Cuba crisis. It is quite possible that Dobrynin took Bobby Kennedy out of context or the former Soviet Premier misunderstood Dobrynin himself. Theodore Sorensen himself, the close friend of the Kennedy’s and the editor of Bobby Kennedy’s memoirs on the Cuban missile crisis, Thirteen Days admits deleting sentences involving the exchange of Jupiter missiles in Turkey for ballistic missiles in Cuba due to the secrecy of this exchange at the time of the memoirs publication. Dobrynin described the publication as being not as explicit as their actual conversation.(Hershburg p.8)
In any event the crisis was resolved, with great a deal of gratitude to be given to Robert F. Kennedy in role in participating in the most important negotiations of the entire conflict. The only real loser in the crisis were the Cubans, who were not informed of the secret trade stipulations of the deal, and understood the situation to be that Moscow had just agreed to dismantle a nuclear fortress in exchange for a flimsy pledge not to invade Cuba by the imperial American juggernaut. Castro and his Cuban comrade’s felt betrayed by the Soviet Union and relation would never be as close as they were during the crisis between the two nations.(Schlesinger p.9)
In Conclusion
In conclusion, Robert F. Kennedy proved to play a vital role in shaping the American response to ballistic nuclear missile bases in Cuba. At first Kennedy and his brother’s entire administration was deceived by Khrushchev through Bobby Kennedy own personal back channel to the Kremlin. The intelligence officer himself who had become a close friend of Kennedy was also deceived by his own government. Khrushchev used the agent to take initiatives against the Kennedy administration and ultimately to maintain the secrecy of operation Anadyr.
Despite the deception, Kennedy would also play a crucial role in the early stages of the Ex Comm meetings, before the Soviets realized the Americans had discovered there missile installations in Cuba, and help to shape a more rational approach to dealing with the crisis the committing to an all out, preemptive strike against Cuba. Through these meetings, Kennedy’s position on a course of action in the crisis evolved from of a hawk to that of a rational position that would not result in mutually assured destruction of both superpowers. While his opinion evolved, he helped to evolve the opinion of the entire Ex Comm committee. By the time the president was asking for a solution to the situation from the group, a rational response was available. Bobby Kennedy played a crucial role in developing this response.
Finally Robert F. Kennedy may have played the most crucial role of all in the final negotiation of the terms to finally resolve the conflict that placed both superpowers on the brink of world war. Though the precise details of the conversation between Kennedy and Ambassador Dobyrnin remain unclear and controversial, the conflict was resolved and the world moved on. Without Bobby Kennedy’s role in the conflict, it is unclear as to whether this would have been the case in October of 1962.
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