Things Fall Apart, a brief history of the Cuban missile war

Things Fall Apart, a brief history of the Cuban missile war

By Andrew G Reese

William Butler Yeats

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The events that lead up to the Cuban missile war (Also called the Soviet American War , World War Three , or the Nuclear holocaust) started on the 14th of October 1962 when a U2 flying over Cuba detected evidence that the soviets were deploying medium range ballistic missiles or MRBMs in Cuba. However President John F Kennedy was not shown the photos of the sites until the sixteenth of October. Kennedy and the newly formed Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) decided to form a blockade or quarantine of Cuba which went into effect on the 19th of October 1962. While they hoped the quarantine would work at forcing the soviets to remove the missiles , however events on the 27th of October would prove otherwise and start the chain of events that lead to the Monday Exchange.
 
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The first shot of the Cuban missile war was made by what is believed to be a soviet foxtrot class Attack Submarine who was challenging the blockade. The Foxtrot class sub was detected by the Destroyer USS Beale DD471 at 4:31 PM EST and was joined by the USS Cony DD508 and, USS Murry DD576. The Three ships proceeded to drop practice depth charges and ping the ship with sonar. It is Unknown who was onboard the Foxtrot class submarine who ordered to fire the nuclear torpedo. However at 6:47 EST the Foxtrot fired a single 15 KT nuclear torpedo at the USS Beale incenratinging it instantly. The USS Cony was lost with all hands being forced under by the wave created from the explosion while the USS Murry suffered heavy damage with her fire control knocked out and heavy flooding. It would have sunk if not for the actions of Ensign Fred Washington who ordered the bulkhead doors to the forward fireroom closed with him in it, an action that would later earn him the medal of honor. The USS Murry lost 100 crew men with another 100 wounded to various degrees after the explosion ,and 25 of her crew men would later die of radiation sickness. In the exchange 758 US sailors were killed while an additional 100 were wounded. It is assumed that the foxtrot class sub was losed with all hands leaving the soviets with seventy-eight losses though that was never proven.
 
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When president Kennedy heard the news of the exchange he went into a rage of the type that no one had would have associated with him. President Johnston would later Write “I had never seen John in such a rage as he was after hearing the news of the attack on the USS Beale, he was walking around the room screaming and punching the walls, it was truly a site to behold” (Johnston). When Kennedy calmed down he planned out the invasion of Cuba. The first stage of the invasion would be an aerial bombardment of Cuba with the goal of knocking out the MRBM sites , command and control centers, as well as concentration of enemy troops. Then Airborne forces would land near the city’s of Harlem and El Volador while the first and third Merean divisions would land on either side of the Bahia Honda Strate respectively. Once Bahia Honda was secured the 1st armored division would land at the Harlem Docks and quickly sweep south to San Cristobal and sease the Missile sights. What the planners of the invasion of Cuba (Code Named Operation Monroe) was the presence of 80 FK1 Metior cruse missiles , each with a 14 kiloton nuclear war head.
 
The first part of operation Monroe was an aerial bombardment of Cuba focused around Missile Sites, Command and Control sites, crossroads, airbases, and lines of communication which lasted for 24 hours. Twelve US Aircraft were lost in the bombardment malny from anti aircraft fire though one F8 crusader was shot down by an MiG 15. At the same time citizens were encouraged to evacuate from the city’s and Lyndon Johnston left EXCOMM to go to mount weather at the request of President Kennedy. After the twenty four hour aerial bombardment the landings began.
 
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