Escalating fears that Putin might do something crazy

[JohnSJ]

14. It was no "calling their bluff". Thank goodness it never got that far.

It was only through backroom negotiations that the situation was defused. It was the reporter John A. Scali who was the go between that the Kennedy administration used to try to defuse the situation, by engaging in negotiations with Moscow.

There were parties on both sides who were itching to pull the trigger. Curtis E. Lemay among others were pushing for us to do a first strike, and Castro along with other Soviet counter parts felt the same way on the Soviet side.

In fact, it was after the shooting down of Rudolf Anderson Jr. plane over Cuba, that our military leaders recommended to Kennedy to launch airstrikes against Cuba. In addition, Moscow already had nearly 100 smaller, fully operational nuclear weapons on the island, which would have been enough to eliminate U.S. forces and escalate the conflict into unprecedented territory. Fortunately Kennedy resisted that recommendation, and pursued a negotiated path, which involved very tense negotiations that resulted in an agreement.

Khrushchev would remove the offensive weapons in Cuba in exchange that the US would not invade Cuba again. Also, as part of that agreement, but not made public at the time, the US would remove all Jupiter MRBMs in Turkey against the Soviet Union.