Documentary "A president betrayed"
 

Has anyone else seen this? It is about Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis. It almost paints a picture that Krushev was acting defensively when he placed the missiles in Cuba.

He wasn't?

I was always taught that Krushev was a maniac set out on the destruction of the US. In the documentary, it talks about how many of our upper level people believed we needed to perfom a first strike an wipe them out. If Krushev knew this(and I think he did) then his actions were totally defensive. He was trying to restore the balance of power.

We had already tried to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, tried to assassinate Castro on multiple occasions, and stationed ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey. For agreeing to remove his missiles from Cuba, we agreed never to invade Cuba and to remove our missiles from Turkey and Italy. Typical geopolitical tit-for-tat.

We did much the same when we stationed Pershing II and Ground Launch Cruise Missiles all over Europe in response to the USSR stationing the SS-20 in Eastern Europe. Our actions led to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

There are always some top people who believe in "first strike". It is a natural percentage outcome of people who make a career out of government and or the military.

Kennedy had completely botched the Bay of Pigs, thinking that a small force of anti-Castro Cubans could invade an 800 mile long island and topple Castro. So Kruschev sort of thought him naive and could be easily pushed around. Kennedy rose to the occasion however and got the missile launchers taken out.

Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs Invasion from Ike. The plans were set before he was sworn in.

The plan could have succeeded if Kennedy was committed. The invading Cubans never forgive him for his denial of the promised air support.

The Kennedy administration had no desire to get entangled in a Cuban civil war when the battle was in the Far East. At the time, empire wise Cuba didn't matter (still doesn't) and Europe was stable.

In the documentary I listed above, it talks about hte bay of pigs. According to it, Kennedy never agreed to our military assistance in the invasion. The principles thought he would go along with the the invasion once he saw how it was going to fail. he surprised them and did not. At least this is how it is presented in the documentary.