During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two countries began a decades-long struggle for the title of the illusory "world hegemon"! The contest between the two sides has changed from land to sea, from sky confrontation to space, from the confrontation of conventional armed forces to the threat of mutual nuclear "blackmail", compared to military strength, show nuclear weapons, fight technology, pull allies, grab territory, everything related to ideology, territory, interests, military and all things related to world rankings they must be "better" than "better"!
The Berlin Crisis, the formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and many other events are inextricably linked to the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, compared with the crises and wars in these local areas, the "Cuban Missile Crisis" that lasted only 13 days in the 1960s was the "big event" that the world was most afraid of during the Cold War! Why?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the comparison of nuclear forces between the United States and the Soviet Union before and after the Cuban crisis</h1>
Because this crisis is the closest event in human history to the start of a global nuclear war, there is no one! It can be said that if the Soviet Union had the same number of nuclear weapons as the United States at that time, the final result of the "Cuban Missile Crisis" must have been a global nuclear war of "mutual destruction".
According to the book Cuban Missile Crisis: The Sequence of Nuclear Warfare, at the height of the crisis, the United States had about 3,500 nuclear weapons available for immediate use, while the Soviets had less than 500 nuclear weapons ready for immediate deployment and launch.
Although the number of nuclear weapons available for immediate use by both sides in an emergency does not seem to be too large, it is estimated that half the world should be gone if these nuclear bombs were fired at each other. Of course, these nuclear weapons are only a small part of the nuclear arsenals of both sides, and if the fuse is ignited, then the destruction of the earth will not be a problem at all based on the nuclear weapons stockpiles of both sides in 1962.
According to statistics, before the Cuban Missile Crisis, the number of nuclear weapons stockpiled by the United States was about 25,500 pieces, and although the number of Soviet weapons was not too large, there were about 3,350 pieces.
It is precisely because of the performance of not being too "tough" in handling the Cuban Missile Crisis incident that it greatly stimulated the nerves of the Soviet high-level. The experience of vigorously developing nuclear weapons to wash away this experience, which was considered a "cowardly shame", became the soviet union's highest pursuit in the future. This "nuclear catch-up program" was later perfectly executed by the Soviet Union, and by the 1980s the total equivalent of nuclear weapons in the hands of the Soviet Union had more than doubled that of the United States.
In 1989, for example, the number of various strategic and tactical nuclear warheads held by the Soviet Union at this time was 17,000, with a total equivalent of about 10 billion tons;
At the same time, the number of nuclear warheads of various types in the United States was 29,000, and although the number of nuclear warheads crushed the Soviet Union, the number of tactical nuclear warheads in its nuclear arsenal accounted for more than half of the total number, so the total equivalent of nuclear weapons in the Hands of the United States at this time was only about 5 billion tons. The result of this multiple of the Soviet Union's nuclear superiority over its opponents was actually largely stimulated by the "Cuban Missile Crisis"!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > How many nuclear bombs were delivered to Cuba by the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis? </h1>
The whole process of the "Cuban Missile Crisis" will not be described here, and I believe that the small partners who understand this period of history have long remembered it. But you may not know that after the crisis event, there was a period of events that were called the "second missile crisis" by the world. In this case, it was mainly Fidel Castro, the then leader of Cuba, and the Soviet Union that engaged in heated negotiations over whether to keep some one hundred tactical nuclear weapons unknown to the United States on Cuban territory.
During the "First" crisis, the United States, based on CIA intelligence and data from U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, confirmed that the Soviet Union secretly shipped about dozens of nuclear weapons to Cuba by sea, including 36 R-12 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and 24 missile launchers, which carried a single nuclear warhead with a power equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT. According to the performance analysis, the missile has a range of about 1292 miles if launched in Cuban territory enough to cover most of the United States from New York to Dallas, while another longer-range R-14 (2000-mile range) missile planned has not been deployed due to crisis events.
In addition to nuclear weapons, the Soviet Military Assistance to Cuba in Operation Anadyr included four regiments of fully equipped armed forces of about 14,000 men and equipment, 42 Il-28 Ilyushin light bombers, 40 MiG-21 fighter jets, 72 surface-to-air missiles, 80 KR-1s, 32 S-2 cruise missiles and other conventional armed forces.
After the arrival of these forces, on October 14, 1962, U.S. U-2 reconnaissance aircraft suddenly discovered Soviet R-12 missile positions in Cuba, which surprised Kennedy, and a tit-for-tat military deployment began.
After 13 days and nights of maneuvering between the two sides, the Soviet Union finally exchanged the withdrawal of the deployed nuclear warheads and some conventional armed forces in exchange for the United States' "strike and suspension", while ending the unprecedented crisis withdrew the "Cupid" medium-range missiles deployed in Turkey to combat the Soviet Union.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > handling of the "Second Cuban Missile Crisis" event</h1>
The withdrawal of nuclear warheads from Cuba mentioned here is actually the Soviet Union's commitment to the R-12 missile detected by the US military! But in fact, before Cuba was blockaded, the Soviet Union had already transported about 100 tactical nuclear warheads, including R-12 ballistic missiles and about 100 others, to Cuba, and the R-12 was withdrawn, and whether the remaining 100 nuclear weapons would remain here?
This question needs to be carefully considered! After all, at least the United States does not know the existence of these 100 tactical nuclear weapons, if it is rushed out and more than a hundred pieces of equipment are more than a hundred pieces of equipment, how to explain it?
In addition, in Castro's case, the leader of the middle country was not allowed to participate in the negotiations on the "missile crisis" between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union before, and the agreement reached between the two sides was entirely due to the compromise of the Soviet Union, which pushed Cuba into the abyss of "no return", which shows how "angry" Castro should be at this time!
So in order to appease the "vanguard" of the Soviet Union against the United States in the Americas, and not to be willing to withdraw so grayly, Khrushchev sent Anastas Mikoyan, the number two person in the Soviet Union at that time, to Havana on November 2, 1962 (five days after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis), and he had full authority over the pacification of Castro and the question of the fate of the 100 nuclear weapons.
Mikoyan's wife was terminally ill before leaving, but in order to save Relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union, the high-ranking official gladly accepted the assignment to Havana. Shortly after his arrival in Cuba, news of his wife's death followed, but he still completed negotiations with Castro.
According to the Original Plan of the Soviet Union, it was crucial that a country so close to the United States be able to maintain good relations with the Soviet Union, and no matter how angry Castro was, Mikoyan had to "coax" him in case of emergency. As for the whereabouts of the hundred or so nuclear bombs, if Castro had a clear attitude and continued to obey the Soviet Union, it would not be impossible to give him as a gift.
The idea is very full, but the reality is quite bone! When Mikoyan and Castro came into contact, they found that things were far from being as simple as they thought.
During the few weeks he stayed in Cuba, Mikoyan deeply felt the depth and hatred of the leader's "hatred" of the United States, and at the same time he complained about the inaction of the Soviet Union. The most extreme example is Castro's "death" order to his own air defense forces after the crisis: all American aircraft passing over the country must be shot down, for any purpose!
In addition, Castro became more and more emboldened after defecting to the Soviet Union, the "big backer", and he even instructed the Cuban representative to the United Nations to publicly declare that the country was equipped with a large number of tactical nuclear weapons, and each of them was several times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped by the United States in Japan that year!
Such an "aggressive" attitude made Mikoyan believe that once he possessed the tactical nuclear weapons donated by the Soviet Union, then under the influence of the all-round suppression policy of the United States, no one was sure whether he would "sacrifice" these "killer skills" at any time. After all, the only source of Cuban nuclear weapons is the Soviet Union, and as soon as the war begins, the United States will naturally think that Cuba's actions were carried out at the behest of the Soviet Union, and then a nuclear war crisis will come again.
Against this backdrop, the two engaged in secret negotiations for four hours, during which Castro desperately wanted the Soviets to keep the nuclear weapons that the world did not yet know. He stressed that because of this incident, the probability of Cuba facing a US invasion will increase greatly, and only with these nuclear weapons can they have the ability to compete with the United States, and Castro has also made a firm commitment: Cuba is ready to end a nuclear war with the United States!
At this time, Mikoyan actually has no reason to defend, after all, it is the Soviets who pushed Cuba into the abyss, and now it is impossible to pat your ass and leave! But the fact that the number two man could not hesitate to withdraw all Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba was the most favorable way to deal with the Soviet Union. So he rejected Castro on the grounds that deploying nuclear weapons in the country violated Soviet law, but in return, Mikoyan promised to provide Cuba with permanent nuclear protection!
But in fact, the Soviet Union did not have similar laws at all, and if there were, wouldn't the previous deployment of nuclear weapons to Cuba already be illegal? Castro reluctantly retorted: Does your country really have this law? I'm sorry, I don't know when this law will be repealed in the next step?
Mikoyan responded: That will only be wait and see!
At this point, it was clear that the Soviet Union had to withdraw the nuclear weapons that were stranded here, because staying here was a "time bomb" for the Soviet Union, and it could endanger the survival of the Soviet Union at any time. As for whether Cuba can be saved, it is not important compared to the security of the Soviet Union itself.
A month after the negotiations, more than a hundred nuclear weapons were packaged and shipped back to the Soviet Union, and the "Second Cuban Missile Crisis" came to an end!
Facts have proved that Mikoyan's choice is correct, in the post-crisis era Cuba has not tossed less, sent "internationalist troops" into Vietnam to participate in the war, intervened in the Angolan civil war, provided military assistance to many countries, etc., in the case of the US blockade is still extremely active, if it is not due to poor strength, it may really have the courage to launch nuclear weapons at Laos and the United States.
Let's not talk about ideological issues, but just talk about things, and withdrawing nuclear weapons from the uncontrollable zone is not only beneficial to the Soviet Union, but also a creation for the whole world!