Cold War Memory

Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, establishing a communist government there. The United States, just 90 miles to the north, was uneasy about having communism so close to home and almost immediately turned a cold shoulder to the Castro regime. By instituting a trade embargo, the United States hoped to put a squeeze on the Cuban economy and force Castro and his communists from power. Unfortunately this scheme backfired and pushed Cuba into a close relationship with the Soviet Union, which was the main adversary of the United States in the Cold War.
At this time, the United States maintained superiority in nuclear weapons, even having based some missiles in Turkey, a mere 150 miles from targets in the Soviet Union. Hoping to balance this threat to their homeland, the Soviets began to secretly base missiles of their own in Cuba.
They got caught.
U.S. Arial reconnaissance photographs revealed the construction of missile sites on Cuba, as well as missiles and the various supplies and equipment necessary to service and launch them. Kennedy and Khrushchev postured through both diplomatic and back-channels over the removal of each other’s missiles, until the American press got wind of the situation. Thereafter, an exchange of aggressive public speeches was added into this mix of indirect “super-power” communication.
The crisis climaxed with an American naval blockade of Cuba to prevent the delivery of any more missiles, missile supplies or equipment to that island. At the last moment the Soviets backed down, halted a convoy of ships just before they reached the U.S. picket line, and recalled them home. Subsequently, the existing Soviet missiles were removed from Cuba, and the crisis was averted.
A great concern at the time was that because of the complexities of the chains of command on either side, any misunderstood event or communication could have triggered a nuclear war. This problem was compounded by the lack at the time of any direct communication link between the executives of the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
I was a toddler at the time of what has become known as the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Even though I was only three years old, I distinctly remember being able to discern a difference in the way people around me were acting. My mother and older sister looked frightened all the time, and my entire family paid what I thought was entirely too much attention to the news. As I grew older and was able to fill in the blanks through family conversations, I was able to link these memories to the missile crisis. I am quite satisfied that these are not false memories.
There was some good which came out of the crisis, I think. For one thing, a nuclear test ban treaty between the superpowers was signed that prohibited above-ground testing of these weapons. For another, a “Hot-Line” was installed linking the Kremlin and the Whitehouse by teletype (a sort of primitive email) to ease communications between the leadership of the two adversaries in the event of any future emergency. Both occurrences helped to ease the Cold War tension between the two nations just a little. I believe it is as a result of this germ of cooperation that I never again had to witness the level of fear that I remember from those days – at least not until a certain September morning in 2001.