CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: WHO WON?

This entry is posted in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The reader may be reminded that I have several items published on my blog, directly related to this subject, in particular: ¡Viva Fidel!, posted on October 19, 2011, Cuba: Khrushchev’s Dangerous Windfall, posted on October 20, 2011, and Cuban Missile Crisis: An Inspired Idiocy, posted on October 22, 2011.

In so far as the timeline of the Crisis is concerned, it is generally accepted that it lasted several days, or even weeks. I hold October 22^nd, 1962, the day of President Kennedy’s Address to the American Nation, as the defining moment of the Crisis. There is a different opinion, of course, identifying October 16^th, 1962, when JFK was allegedly first told the old news about Soviet military activities in Cuba, as Day One of the Crisis. There is no point in bickering about the date, as it would be silly of me to wait, on stubborn principle, until the later date, while the actual commemoration, rightly or wrongly, has already started. So, here I am today, with my contribution.

The special purpose of this entry (I already discussed the pertinent details in my blog postings a year ago) is to raise the title question: who won?

It is common knowledge that America achieved a historic propaganda victory when the USSR retreated, and the crisis was diffused. How big was the victory? Huge, considering that perceptions in politics are invariably more important than substance.

Ironically, in tangible strategic military terms, Khrushchev scored unquestionably his biggest point against the United States. Having conjured up a bargaining chip out of thin air, he most successfully traded it for an existing strategic asset of Russia’s main adversary: American nuclear missiles in Turkey!!! Had American propaganda victory not been so overwhelming, the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis would surely have counted among the greatest Soviet achievements of the Cold War era… Amazing!

The biggest individual winner of the Crisis was certainly Fidel, exchanging a lethal powder keg, threatening to blow up his island, for the honey barrel of Washington’s solemn pledge not to ever invade Cuba militarily, thus assuring him and his government of longevity, and establishing him as a legend, a perennial symbol of successful defiance and perseverance of a tiny Latin American nation ninety miles off the coast of Florida opposite the superpower colossus of Western Imperialism.

…And one more thing. The conventional pseudo-wisdom calls the Cuban Missile Crisis the lowest point of American-Soviet relations during the Cold War. I would call it the highest point. It was only due to the very special personal chemistry between the two superpower leaders, Khrushchev and Kennedy, that their game of super-high stakes poker had been possible in the first place, and all the participants, the Cubans included, lived to tell their grandchildren about it.