Cuban misile crisis again

So, inspired by a comment on the other cuban missile crisis thread

WI at the beginning of the crisis the US had reliable information regarding the size and capabilities of the USSR's nuclear capabilities. Would they have invaded Cuba and dared the USSR to do something about it?

If they were also aware that within a decade or so the balance would have significantly shifted, would he US have initiated a pre-emptive war?
 
Under Kennedy and MacNamara? I strongly doubt it. They DID know quite a lot from U2 flights as it was.

Not to mention information from a Soviet Colonel high up in the Defence Ministry. Can't remember his name but I believe that the information he got to CIA helpled Kennedy make his decision to blockade, since the US had nuclear superiority.
 
By 1962, the idea of a missile gap had all but disappeared among the higher-ups. They had access to the U-2 information and could tell that the Soviets were lying through their teeth about what they actually had. Among the wider public, however, there was still a real belief that the Soviet Union had an edge in nuclear weapons -- primarily because the U-2 information was so highly classified.
 
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