The Cuban Missile Crisis is the most-studied event in the
history of American statecraft. My mother's seven-year old son in 1962 was a
23-year old graduate student in 1978 and Graham Allison's Essence of Decision was assigned
reading. The Cuban Missile Crisis reinforced, may have given rise to, the “rational
actor” model of international negotiations, that is, assume your adversary doesn't want his country blown up either. Professor Allison stated recently
that the current Iran
situation is "the Cuban Missile Crisis in slow-motion." Does the rational actor model work with Iran ? No.
On October 23 President Kennedy signed the “quarantine”
order
and American ships took position in the Caribbean . The Tactical Air Command had over 500
fighters on one-hour standby. The administration notified Turkey that the U.S.
was considering proposing to the Soviet Union a withdrawal of American missiles
from Turkey in exchange for
a withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba . The Turks were livid. That
exchange did take place but was only made known publicly long after. Fidel
Castro was also livid and said Cuba
would never agree to U.N. inspection to verify that all “offensive” missiles
had been removed.
All-in-all October 23 was not a good start to the
administration’s new policy. It would get worse.
