Hello, writerguy-ga!
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted a mere fortnight, yet it changed
American's perceptions about their world dramatically. Overnight, the
threat of nuclear bombs reaching U.S. soil became a potential reality.
For decades, two enemies had co-existed in an uneasy relationship.
Suddenly, one made it's move. Was the other to back down, or stand up
to the fight? History tells the story. The United States did not back
down, but faced Russia squarely and with formidable power.
What was the nature of life in America during this historic event?
What were some of the thoughts, fears and cultural events that
dominated our lives and provide a reflection of this period of
history?
========================================
WAS THIS THE BEGINNING OF A NUCLEAR WAR?
========================================
Certainly, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of a full scale
nuclear war were two dots that connected in most American minds during
those tremulous, fourteen days of uncertainty. We had witnessed
nuclear destruction before in the form of the Atomic Bomb, which had
been dropped with reluctance to end World War II. But somehow, as
disconcerting as it was to suddenly realize how much power and
destruction could result at the hands of man, the dropping of "the
bomb" had a purpose.......ultimately, to put an end the threat from
Japan.
The Cuban Missile crisis was especially ominous. Our most formidable,
long-standing enemy was actually posturing a threat to invade American
soil.
==
"I WAS but a child in 1962, but even then, I was vaguely aware of the
"Cuban missile crisis" as my parents spoke at the dinner table about
the possibility of the "end of the world."
From "Goodwill, good men (and good women)," by Rina Jimenez-David.
INQ7.
http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:k66nVXbvhbAJ:www.inq7.net/opi/2001/oct/14/opi_rjdavid-1.htm+lifestyle+reactions+to+cuban+missile+crisis&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
==
"In October 1962, much of what American children knew about war came
from watching movies or reading history books. That was about to
change - dramatically. From Maine to Miami, Americans were faced with
the specter of immediate war - Russian nuclear missiles based in Cuba,
aimed at American men, women and children."
"British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan's first reaction when shown
the pictures of the missile sites in Cuba, was, reportedly, "Now the
Americans will realize what we here in England have lived through the
past many years."
From "Growing tensions during crisis rattled Floridians," by Vince
Murray. Cuban Missile Crisis Series. Online Star Banner.
http://www.starbanner.com/stagnant/missiles/usgrowstense1016.html
==
As a young child, Mark Beiro was definitely afraid the Missile Crisis
was the beginning of a third World War.
"My most vivid memory was the live coverage of the United Nations
provided by network television," he said. "So much so that I still
remember that Richard C. Hottelett covered the U.N. for CBS News -
when U.S. Ambassador Adalai Stevenson questioned Soviet Ambassador
Zorin about whether offensive missiles existed in Cuba and insisted
that Zoran not wait for a translation. Yes or no, does the Soviet
Union deny that there are offensive weapons in Cuba?
"I remember Zorin just laughing heartily at being questioned in that
manner, and it still raises the hairs on my neck," Beiro said. "I was
11 years old and I believed then, seriously, that I might not see my
12th birthday in March."
From "Growing tensions during crisis rattled Floridians," by Vince
Murray. Cuban Missile Crisis Series. Online Star Banner.
http://www.starbanner.com/stagnant/missiles/usgrowstense1016.html
=====================================================
KHRUSHCHEV BANGS HIS SHOE, SHOUTING "WE WILL BURY YOU!"
======================================================
When the Soviet premier banged his show on the desk of the United
Nations in 1956, shouting arrogantly to the US delegates, it certainly
sparked anger in the United States. Those were definitely fighting
words!
Khrushchev's words were turned around in an ever so delightful way,
however, by Astronaut Scott Carpenter's mother in 1962. When her son
became the second man to orbit the earth, Florence Carpenter
remembered Kruse's threat and used his hateful words to highlight US
superiority.
"Florence's first official words after her son's successful splashdown
were: "Today we have seen courage, determination, dedication, and
power of the United States, and we know now why we shall never be
buried," an apparent reference to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's
well-publicized 1956 speech at the United Nations in which he told
U.S. representatives, "We will bury you."
From "Pettem: Astronaut's mother treated as a celebrity" by Silvia
Pettem. Lifestyles. Dailycamera.com. (1/30/2003
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/features_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2476_1708236,00.html
==
Khrushchev's words are further remembered in a song that Sting wrote
many decades later:
"Mr. Khrushchev says 'we will bury you'
I don't subscribe to his point of view
It's such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too..."
From "Russians."
http://www.purelyrics.com/index.php?lyrics=tszskvrl
==
In the words of one who grew up in the era surrounding the Cuban
Missile Crisis:
"I grew up in the cold war era, when we were staring down the muzzle,
so to speak, of nuclear war. I remember Khrushchev on TV, pounding on
the bargaining table with his shoe, and proclaiming, We will bury you.
A lot of people thought we would never see the millennium, and even if
we did, we would be drones of some totalitarian government. Thank God
they were wrong."
http://members.aol.com/deanhuns/next.html
===================================================
SOME FOOLISH POLITICAL WORDS FROM THE U.S. AS WELL!
===================================================
"In October 1962, after the Soviet Union stationed nuclear missiles in
Fidel Castro's Cuba, President John F. Kennedy called upon Dean
Acheson for advice. With typical self-assurance, the grand old man of
the Cold War bellowed his recommendation at a meeting of the so-called
ExComm of top Kennedy aides: a swift U.S. airstrike to take out the
nukes. When asked what the result would be, Acheson replied that
Moscow would then destroy a cache of NATO nuclear missiles in Turkey.
Then what? he was asked. Under our NATO obligations, Acheson said,
Washington would have to attack a nuclear base within the Soviet Union
itself. And then? Acheson paused. "That's when we hope," the
magisterial wise man said, "that cooler heads will prevail, and
they'll stop and talk."
From "Cold War Follies: The Cuban missile crisis was scarier than we
thought," by Warren Bass. Slate (August 6, 1997)
http://slate.msn.com/id/3001/
================================
GROWING UP WITH AIR RAID DRILLS
================================
In my elementary school years in Ohio, we regularly had "air-raid
drills." We were told to stand in line at our classroom door and then
calmly and quietly follow our teacher down to the basement hallway of
the school. Once there, we were instructed to kneel on the floor and
cover the top of our heads with our hands to protect us from the
"tons" of rubble that would likely kill us before any nuclear fallout
did!
==
Martie Brindley, who lived in Jacksonville, Florida in 1962, remembers
the air raid drills well.
"During the day at school, we practiced in case we were hit," Brindley
said. "At a given alarm, we were taught to get under our desk with out
backs to the window and cover our head with our arms.
"Another drill consisted of lining up and being loaded into cars
driven by volunteer parents. We then sat in the parking area until the
school was empty. I remember doing this numerous times. I guess we
would have been driven somewhere if Cuba attacked. I don't know where
that 'somewhere safe' was," she said.
"We had to bring in empty bleach bottles, used to store water, and an
extra set of clothes that were stored in boxes to be used as needed.
We never got the clothes back."
"I don't remember feeling anxious during this time," Brindley said.
"The drills at school were treated like a fire drill - only we were
taught to be extremely quiet and get out of the class and into the
waiting cars as quickly as possible. The 'under the desk' drill was
triggered by the teacher yelling a code word - I don't remember what
it was - and we practiced it several times a day. Gosh, hard to
believe that was 40 years ago."
Says Bob Jones, "All around town we could hear the testing of the air
raid sirens that kept going off. "Everyone was in panic mode, and we
were even dismissed from school. I was too young to realize the true
consequences and used it as a great time to get away from my stepdad
and some days off from school.
"My mother on the other hand was truly upset and stressed over it
all," he said. "We stayed at home and listened to the radio. My mother
filled the bathtub up with emergency water in case we lost our water.
We practiced hiding in the middle of the house just in case the attack
came."
From "Growing tensions during crisis rattled Floridians," by Vince
Murray. Cuban Missile Crisis Series. Online Star Banner.
http://www.starbanner.com/stagnant/missiles/usgrowstense1016.html
===
"OK, it's a bomb drill. Put your head between your legs and kiss your
butt goodbye," said Chet J. Malesky, assistant director in the city's
Department of General Services. He was recalling a bomb drill he
endured in the 1960s at the now-closed St. Leo Elementary School on
the North Side."
From "Fallout shelters a casualty of peace," by Brenden Sager.
Post-Gazette. (8/29/1999)
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990829ffallout6.asp
===============================
FALLOUT SHELTERS WERE A REALITY
===============================
As a child of eight during the Cuban missile crisis, I clearly
remember (and often envied) those who had had the foresight to build
nuclear fallout shelters. In fact, our next door neighbors had one! I
can remember thinking, from a child's perspective, how safe it must
feel to have a fully-stocked, underground shelter where one could
survive for months, if need be, in the event of a nuclear war.
However, there was also a healthy dose of fear mixed in with the
reality that we could actually become embroiled in a nuclear war.
The building of fallout shelters was not a direct response to the
Cuban missile crisis, but were evidence of the growing awareness of
nuclear threat that grew out of the reality of the Atomic Bomb and the
ongoing threat from Enemy Number 1 - Russia!
However, during the Missile Crisis, having a shelter was a comfort to
those who had them, and raised the question of "why didn't we build
one?" in others!
The following excerpts are from:
"Fallout shelters a casualty of peace," by Brenden Sager.
Post-Gazette. (8/29/1999)
http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19990829ffallout6.asp
"..when the Cuban missile crisis came in 1962, it was "panic time."
"According to a report, "A Study of In-Place Shelter Protection in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" from the State Council of Civil Defense
and dated August 1978, many state residents had "knee-jerk reactions"
to the crisis and began building fallout shelters.
"People were encouraged to build their own shelters at home in their
cellars, or wherever space might be found," the report said. "Some of
these were quite deluxe," stocked with crackers, candy, water, medical
supplies, sanitation kits and radiation-detecting equipment.
The prevalence of fallout shelters around the United States during
the 1960's was evidenced by Pennsylvania's Allegheny County, which had
"2,207 fallout shelters the last time anyone counted -- in 1978."
If that sounds like a lot, the amount of shelters built throughout
the entire state during the nuclear-threat years is mind-boggling.
"In October 1977, Civil Defense representatives in counties across the
state began to tally up their shelters. They counted 18,343 shelters,
with 2,207 in Allegheny County, 290 in Beaver County, 106 in Fayette
County, 50 in Indiana County, 2,748 in Philadelphia County, 95 in
Washington County and 33 in Westmoreland County."
===
Those who felt it was a bit extreme to build a fallout shelter in the
"unlikely" event of a nuclear war with Russia began to think a bit
differently when the Missile Crisis hit.
People began to stock up on food and supplies during those critical
days. I know my parents did!
=
Florida resident Joanne Yancey stocked up as well.
"Bert and Chris were only 2 and 3 and at home with me," she said. "We
thought about evacuating to the grandparents' home in Tallahassee but
hated to take the kids out of school since we had no idea how long the
crisis would last. Jim Sr. continued to go to work as manager of the
Palmetto Country Club every day, and I simply stocked up on canned
goods, Sterno, bottled water, candles, a radio, medicines and other
usual south Florida hurricane supplies. Groundwater is just too close
to the surface in Dade County to even think of an underground
shelter."
At times, the stress was nearly unbearable.
"We tried to keep our daily routine as normal as possible, crossed our
fingers and prayed a lot," Yancey said. "I began having a dream that I
still have occasionally: I know a disaster is coming and my husband
and children are all in different places and I am frantically trying
to locate them and bring them to safety."
From "Growing tensions during crisis rattled Floridians," by Vince
Murray. Cuban Missile Crisis Series. Online Star Banner.
http://www.starbanner.com/stagnant/missiles/usgrowstense1016.html
==
While most fallout shelters have been dismantled or forgotten over
the last several decades, they were certainly an important key to a
"feel safe" mentality during the 50's and 60's.
==================================
THE TWILIGHT ZONE AND "REALITY" TV!
===================================
Well, it wasn't really reality, but it could have been.....couldn't
it? This episode of the Twighlight Zone was one that I have never
forgotten. It portrayed, on our old black and white TV sets, the
perils of one bomb shelter for too many people. It asked the ugly side
question that was secretly on many minds at the time:
What if I build a fallout shelter and no one else does? Should I let
them in? Or should I save my own food and supplies for my family?
A synopsis of the Twilight Zone episode, titled "The Shelter" follows:
http://www.thetzsite.com/pages/episodes/068.html
(If interested, you can also read the full transcript of the show!)
"What you are about to watch is a nightmare. It is not meant to be
prophetic, it need not happen, it's the fervent and urgent prayer of
all men of good will that it never shall happen. But in this place, in
this moment, it does happen. This is the Twilight Zone."
"It is Dr. William Stockton's birthday and several families from the
neighborhood are gathered in his dining room to celebrate the
occasion. After the birthday dinner has concluded, Jerry Harlowe
stands up and crafts a speech thanking the doctor for taking care of
all of them through the years. Talk turns to Stockton's bomb shelter
and how it was created with much hammering and concrete during plenty
of nights. Jerry generously forgives him on behalf of the rest of the
neighborhood. He concludes his speech by proclaiming that no doctor
anyway else has patients that respect him more than Stockton's
patients respect him. After the party is over, everybody is preparing
to move into the other room when William's son Paul comes running in
claiming that the TV picture went out followed by an announcement to
turn on the radio to the Conelrad station. Dr. Stockton immediately
switches on the radio and tunes to the Conelrad station. The announcer
reads a statement from the President declaring that unidentified
flying objects have been detected and are flying due southeast. The
President advises everybody to enter their prepared shelter if they
have one, otherwise head to a central place in your home."
"The families gathered at Dr. Stockton's house quickly run to their
own homes while William, Grace and Paul make plans to enter their bomb
shelter. Grace's nerves are frayed as she clumsily drops of one of the
jugs of water. William advises her to treat the bottles of water as
rare perfume. Grace still has problems remaining calm as she snaps at
her son when he asks one too many questions. Then she starts to babble
when she realizes that they are out of light bulbs. William gives her
a firm hug and tells her to just keep on filling jugs of water.
However, moments later the tap runs dry. William tells her not to
worry about it because they've got enough water, then they all proceed
down into the bomb shelter. While Paul runs back to the garage to
retrieve a tool kit, William tries to assure Grace that they will be
safe. Grace, however, is insistent that if it is a bomb, then New York
City will be destroyed and they are only forty miles away. They only
have enough food and water for two weeks. She questions why they want
to survive a bomb just so they can walk among the rubble and ruins."
"When Paul yells from the garage saying that he found the tool kit,
William points out that it is because of Paul that they have to
survive. After Paul returns with the tool kit, William walks back
upstairs to retrieve the rest of the water. Standing outside the
kitchen door is Jerry Harlowe. He's in a panic because his house has
no shelter and no basement. He wants to put his family in William's
bomb shelter. William forcibly turns Jerry down because the shelter
was designed for only three people. Even though Jerry keeps persisting
because of his family, William is finally forced to close the door of
the bomb shelter in Jerry's face, leaving Jerry alone in the basement.
Moments later, Marty Weiss and his family show up at the basement
door. As Jerry leaves to return to his family, Marty walks up to the
shelter's door and pleads with William to let his family inside.
William turns down Marty's request just as he did Jerry's, but Marty
reacts badly and claims that William will have blood on his hands when
he survives the apocalypse and none of them do. Marty and his family
return upstairs where they find Jerry Harlowe talking to his wife at
the front door. She begs with Jerry to ask William again. Just then,
Frank and his family come running up to the front door."
"Since Jerry is sure that William will not let any family into the
shelter, he advises that the rest of them find one good basement and
go to work on it. Frank, however, wants to physically break down the
door to the bomb shelter. Jerry tries to explain that it wouldn't do
any good since there isn't enough room in the shelter for everybody.
Marty thinks that they should pick one family to go inside the bomb
shelter, but Frank accuses him of thinking of his own family to be the
one. They almost come to blows, but Jerry pulls them apart. Finally,
Frank decides to head downstairs and force himself into the bomb
shelter. William refuses to allow entry once again, so the rest of
them grab a large pipe from the next street over to use as a battering
ram. Right as they succeed in breaking down the door, Conelrad
announces that the unidentified objects have been identified as
satellites and that the state of emergency has been called off. After
everybody is through embracing their loved ones, Frank tentatively
walks up to Marty and apologizes for his actions. Then everybody tries
to apologize to Dr. Stockton. Stockton, however, is humbled by the
experience, and even though they weren't literally destroyed by a
bomb, he can't help but wonder if they were destroyed anyway..."
"No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of
fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain
civilized. Tonight's very small exercise in logic from the Twilight
Zone."
===
============================
DO WE HAVE ENOUGH MISSILES?
=============================
Nike missile sites were everywhere, it seemed. As the threat of
nuclear war loomed as a very real possibility, missile sites rapidly
spread across the country. I've even slept in a few abandoned Distant
Early Warning sites while doing environmental research along the coast
of Alaska's Beaufort Sea......silent echoes of times past! As a boy,
my husband was very proud to have one in his hometown in Connecticut,
"knowing" that his home was well-protected from the Russians!
==
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Nike bases were on a heightened
state of alert.
"Over four decades ago, the United States Army began deployment of its
new Nike missiles at sites all across the nation. It was a time of
increasing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, an
era in which fears of a nuclear war were rampant, backyard bomb
shelters were in vogue and air raid drills were as common as fire
drills in many schools. Named for the mythical Greek goddess of
victory, the Nikes were designed to shoot down Russian bombers,
providing a vital last line of defense against a nuclear attack for
American cities and metropolitan regions."
"Over two hundred Nike missile installations were constructed within
the continental United States."
"Initially, the coordination of the region’s Nike batteries was
accomplished manually from a central command post, using telephone and
radio. Although this system worked, its effectiveness in an age of
supersonic aircraft and hydrogen bombs was far from ideal. A better
system was needed. In fact, the Army had already created a feasibility
study for an electronic coordination system for anti-aircraft defenses
as early as 1946. A prototype system produced by the U.S. Army Signal
Corps during 1950 eventually led to the deployment of the experimental
Antiaircraft Defense System (AN/GSG-2) at Fort George G. Meade,
Maryland, during 1955.
"The new experimental air defense coordination system proved to be a
success. By effectively integrating radar, computers and digital
communications, it was capable of rapidly identifying hostile aircraft
and coordinating the firing of defensive missile batteries to destroy
them. Two systems were developed from this first experimental system:
the most complex, costly and capable system was designated "AN/FSG-1"
and more commonly known as "Missile Master".
"First deployed at Fort George G. Meade during 1957, the nine million
dollar Missile Master system was eventually installed at over a dozen
locations within the Continental United States. It was capable of
simultaneously tracking almost 50 targets while coordinating the
firing of up to two dozen missile batteries. The Philadelphia Defense
Area’s Missile Master facility, located within the Army’s Pedricktown
Sub Depot, became operational during 1960. Designated as site
"PH-64DC" it was also known as the Philadelphia Air Defense Site or
"PADS".
"Designed to resist the force of a nearby nuclear explosion, the
imposing, windowless Missile Master building featured massive
reinforced concrete construction. A portion of the two-level building
was located below grade. Each of its entrances featured special
shielding to protect against blast effects. Inhabitants were further
protected against radioactive fallout by special air-tight seals on
doorways and by air filtration systems."
"The heart of the Missile Master was the Blue Room so named because of
its subdued blue lighting which permitted optimal viewing of the radar
screens and plotting boards located there. Within this room, the
tracks of incoming hostile aircraft were received from the site’s own
surveillance radar and from remote radar sites including Gibbsboro Air
Force Station, located 15 miles to the north. The tactical situation
was rapidly assessed and specific Nike batteries were assigned to
individual aircraft targets. A '“Friendly Protector" made certain that
known U.S. aircraft operating within the region were not accidentally
fired upon."
"Frequent air defense exercises were held to test the readiness of
Pedricktown’s control center and its associated Nike missile batteries
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania."
**
"During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the base and the missile
batteries it controlled were placed on a heightened state of alert,
remaining in this condition for several weeks."
**
From "Air Defense on the Deleware:The Pedricktown Missile Master Site,
1960-1966," by Donald E. Bender.
http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/N-A-pedricktown.html
================================
CHURCH SERMONS REFLECT THE TIMES
================================
One minister reflects on the emphasis his sermons had during the years
surrounding the 1960's:
"The context of those sermons was the highly polarized era of nuclear
proliferation. World peace was at risk. There was the Cuban missile
crisis and the Berlin wall. At home things were polarized as well.
There was poverty and racial conflict."
From "Salvation: From What, To What? by James N. Porter, Member, Paint
Creek Unitarian Universalist Congregation (11/26/2000)
http://www.paintcreek.org/resources/sermons/salvation.shtml
==
One of my fellow researchers, who was 13 at the time of the Cuban
Missile Crisis, recalls that "a famous topic for Sunday sermons was
whether or not one had the moral right to shoot a neighbor trying to
enter your fallout shelter."
====
(The following current-day sermons are merely reflections of some
thoughts concerning the era of the early 60s_
"I was born in the late 50’s into a world defined by the Cold War. One
of my first childhood memories was the Cuban missile crisis. We lived
in Little Rock, Arkansas at the time and grown people were concerned
that the Russians might attack us at any time. Several people that we
knew -- and they were not yahoos but Lawyers and Dentists -- had
fallout shelters built in their back yards, laden with food supplies,
in case the Commies tried to nuke us. It was an era that gave us the
great movie Dr. Strangelove. The whole generation cut their moral
teeth on the ironies produced by the Cold War-some of them still with
us. This morning’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Saad Mehio,
reminds us that 30 years ago, we encouraged Islamic militants to fight
the spread of Communism. [i]During that same time, both the United
States and the Soviet Union, kept adding missile after missile to
their nuclear arsenals to the point that we each could blow up the
entire world several hundred times over and the stated nuclear policy
was called Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD for short."
"Mystery and Moment," by Charles Rush. Christ Church, Summit NJ
(12/2/2001)
http://www.christchurchsummit.org/Sermons-2001/011202-MysteryAndMoment.html
=
"Last week some people remembered the Cuban Missile Crisis of forty
years ago when the world felt it was poised on the brink of nuclear
annihilation. You cannot convey that feeling to subsequent generations
who only know about it from history books. For a few days in October
of 1962, there was deep fear that the world would not see another
year. And then the following year John F. Kennedy was assassinated and
the fears returned. The Sixties were filled with racial tension, urban
wars, threats of environmental catastrophe, and the increasing war in
Southeast Asia."
From "Treasures of Darkness." (10/20/2002)
http://www.stjohns-ucc.org/sermons_darkness.html
==========================================
SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE EARLY 60'S CULTURE
==========================================
A CNN chat with Richard Schwartz brought back many memories about the
early 1960's.
From "COLD WAR Chat: Richard Schwartz." CNN Perspective Series.
(2/7/1999)
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/guides/debate/chats/schwartz/
CNN Moderator: What would you say was the single most influential film
of the Cold War? Please explain.
Richard Schwartz: I would offer "Dr. Strangelove" because it captured
everybody's imagination of its humor along with its expressing the
very real possibility of nuclear annihilation. It's the quintessential
work of black humor in that we find ourselves laughing at a very real
and disturbing possibility.
Chat Participant: What do you think was the significance of the
Russians Boris and Natasha in the "Bullwinkle" cartoon?
Richard Schwartz: Well, they made a lot of children aware of the
Soviets. I suppose maybe in the long run because they were cartoon
characters and non-threatening and because they were always foiled by
Rocky and Bullwinkle, maybe they were ultimately reassuring to the
children. I do have a short entry on that in my book. That was a much
more sophisticated cartoon than its children's designation would
suggest. It plays off of bureaucracy and notions of history, so it was
more sophisticated than first examination would suggest.
Chat Participant: Do you see any comparison today with the '50s-'60s
bomb shelter culture and the recent rise of asteroid scares, i.e.
"Armageddon" and "Deep Impact"?
Richard Schwartz:..if I understand the question, you are asking about
not just science fiction films from the '50s but apocalyptic films in
general. The difference is, in the late '50s and early '60s
especially, the threat of apocalypse was both real and imminent. In
1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, we came very close to a real
nuclear showdown. And prior to that, from 1958-61, the Berlin crisis
also threatened a serious nuclear showdown. So whether it was realized
in the form of science fiction, where the alien often symbolizes the
communist threat such as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "Them" and
"The Thing," or in other more direct treatments of nuclear showdown,
such as "Dr. Strangelove" or "The Bedford Incident," there was the
real possibility of the annihilation of the entire world.
Chat Participant: What social undertones were expressed in "The
Twilight Zone"?
Richard Schwartz: I suppose the interest in other-worldliness actually
expresses a kind of hope. Because there was a sense among many people
that apart from some other-worldly kind of intervention, be it through
God, or aliens from outer space, or other unknown, untapped forces,
without such intervention nuclear war was inevitable. Apart from that,
there were certain episodes of "The Twilight Zone" that dealt with the
nuclear issue directly. The best known is about the bank teller who
only wants to be left alone to read and seems to get his wish when he
descends deep into the vault on his break and happens to be there when
the nuclear attack wipes out everybody else. But with characteristic
irony, writer-director Rod Serling has the man sit on his reading
glasses.
Chat Participant: Can you speak to the effect that pop music had on
political sensibilities during the Cold War in the '60s and '70s?
Richard Schwartz: Yes, some popular music dealt directly with politics
and the nuclear threat. The song "Eve of Destruction," for instance,
which was a best seller or a top 10 song by Barry McGuire in 1965,
asked over and over again: Don't you know you're on the eve of
destruction? Folk song writers like Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs discuss
political situations. Ochs for instance wrote the "Ballad of the Cuban
Invasion," about the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, as well as "Talking
Cuban Crisis," about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and "The Ballad of
William Worthy," about a black journalist who ran afoul of the State
Department when he traveled to Cuba without a passport. Dylan's "Hard
Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is also about the Cuban Missile Crisis. His
"Talking World War III Blues" provides a black humor view of life
after nuclear war
======
FOR FURTHER READING:
"Forty Years Later Castro Remains in Power," by Vince Murray.
CollegeNews.org. (10/28/2002)
http://www.collegenews.org/x1126.xml
===
I am sure I could go on and on with this project. It is fascinating.
However, I believe I have covered the major bases and had better stop
before you suffer from serious eyestrain.
If you can think of anything in particular that I have left out,
please notify me in a clarification and I will try to help as best I
can.
For memories sake, I wish I still had the plastic John F. Kennedy and
Fidel Castro Halloween masks that my brother's and I wore during a fun
night of trick-or-treating in 1961 or 1962! I think they would look
great up on my wall along with all the other assorted memories of my
life!
umiat-ga
Google Search strategy
lifestyle reactions to cuban missile crisis
Khrushchev "we will bury you"
air raid drills +cuban missile crisis
church sermons +cuban missile crisis
editorials +cuban missile crisis
political opponents +cuban missile crisis |
Clarification of Answer by
umiat-ga
on
12 Jun 2003 08:51 PDT
Hello, writerguy!
Here are some more references!
(By the way, I have contacted the editors to have your clarification
removed so you e-mail address is not visible!)
==
From "Memories of the Cuban crisis still vivid," by Mark E. Jolly. The
Intelligencer. (10/28/2002)
http://www.phillyburbs.com/intelligencerrecord/news/news_all/1728549.htm
The tense week of the standoff between the Cold War superpowers
affected everyone who lived through it, though some more than others.
Jim Becker of Bedminster is amazed looking back on the crisis,
especially as he learns more about the details of what happened. But
he remembers being rather unimpressed at the time, despite flying
patrols over the North Atlantic as a member of the Navy Reserve.
"At the time it didn't seem like a big deal. You did what you had to
do," he said. "I was doing what every 18-year-old was doing. I was
more interested in building hot rods."
His wife, Christine Becker, who was 12 at the time, had a very
different experience involving considerably more fear. Her
recollections centered on details several local residents mentioned:
neighbors building bomb shelters, crouching under desks during drills
in school and watching President John Kennedy on television Oct. 22,
when he told the public the Soviet Union had installed nuclear
missiles in Cuba.
"It was scary because every day you'd have bomb drills," she said.
"You'd watch the news and the bomb drills.... You were waiting for it
to happen."
Buckingham resident George Fernandez had just recently arrived in
Doylestown from Cuba when the missile crisis began. He was a
10-year-old refugee from the revolution. His family still in the
Caribbean country knew less about what was going on and "were bracing
for a showdown."
"The Cuban people were being told, 'This is it. We're going to war
with America.' "
Fernandez said he and his family were acutely worried, perhaps more
than many other Americans, because of family in Cuba and Miami and
because they had just left Cuba and the events playing out there were
very real for them.
"We still had fresh wounds of fleeing our homeland. The whole issue
was very close to us. We knew first-hand just how close we came to
nuclear war," Fernandez said. "The new regime under Castro was adding
to tensions. Castro was egging Khrushchev, saying, 'You promised to
protect me.' Thank God the voice of reason prevailed between the
leaders."
We thought the use of nuclear weapons was going to end the world,"
said Doylestown attorney Bill Bolla, who was 15 during the Cuban
Missile Crisis. "Now, it would just be a regrettable, horrible event.
I don't see it as ending the world. It was just such an unknown to us.
===
From "COLD WAR MEMORIES:A critical period is commemorated in a new
National Historic Site."
COMPILED BY MARK ROSE. (5/3/2000)
http://www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=online/features/icbm/index
"Some of you may share my memories of running home from school when
the warning sirens sounded, of a friend or neighbor installing a bomb
shelter in their back yard, of the yellow and black public fallout
shelter signs posted on schools, banks, churches, and office
buildings, or of the olive drab cans of crackers and drinking water
stacked up in the shelters. Who can forget the pictures of missile
laden Soviet ships steaming toward Cuba, or the television newsreels
of U.S. jets scrambling from their bases, darkening the air with
trails of black kerosene soot during the Cuban Missile Crisis of
October 1962?"
-Mr. Tim J. Pavek, Minuteman II Deactivation Program Manager,
Ellsworth AFB, statement before the House Subcommittee on National
Parks and Public Lands, September 14, 1999)
===
From "Dancing with history in missile drama," by Bonnie Churchill.
Special to The Christian Science Monitor. (1/12/2001)
http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/2001/01/12/fp20s1-csm.shtml
"I knew something was up," Kevin Costner recalled. "I was only seven,
but I felt strange when I rode my bike past the school playground, and
it was empty, and there were no kids around the neighborhood to play
with.
"I got home and saw my mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table,
talking quietly. Before I could ask questions, my mom called my
brother, Dan, and me into the living room. President Kennedy was on TV
telling about the Soviets installing long-range missiles in Cuba, they
were pointed toward the US and would be operational in days."
Costner lived in Compton, a blue-collar southern California town. His
father worked as a ditch digger and later as a lineman for Southern
California Edison.
"I remember him looking around the living room, and then centering his
gaze on my brother and me and saying, 'One missile could take out a
lot of people.' "
"You mean our house?" Kevin asked. "A whole city," his dad replied.
With memories like that, it's understandable that Costner would want
to produce "Thirteen Days," the story of the 1962 Cuban missile
crisis. "Most of the kids today don't know anything about it," he
says. "I think it's a moment in history we should remember...."
==
The following interviews were conducted as part of a class project at
Brown University. They could only be accessed using the Internet
Archive Wayback Machine, since the current web links are now outdated.
"Interview with Burton Lamont on his impressions of the Cuban Missile
Crisis"
http://web.archive.org/web/20020616012346/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/kl_3.19.html
(Burton Lamont was born November 11, 1942 and was 19 at the time of
the Missile Crisis.)
Q: I want to ask you about what you remember about the Cuban Missile
Crisis: where you were at the time, what you thought about it, where
you got information from, etc.
A: I remember the time of year as being summertime. I remember being
at the house in Tenafly (New Jersey) with my parents and sister
watching President Kennedy on TV. Presidents didn't talk on TV as
frequently as they do now so everyone tuned in when they did. [BL may
have actually been away at school at the time because Kennedy's speech
was given in October- but he said that at any rate the most memorable
event was watching Kennedy on TV.]I remember Kennedy showed aerial
photos as examples of the evidence that he had used to make his
decision. The photos showed the jungle being cut away and the building
of missile sites.Kennedy said that he recognized that he didn't really
know what the consequences of this action might be and that it was
risky. But that he and his advisors believed it would be a greater
risk to do nothing.
* I went to bed that night thinking that if there would ever be a
World War 3 it would probably be now.*
The interception of Russian ships could be interpreted as a blockade
which could be interpreted as an act of war against Cuba. And the
Russians and the Cubans probably had some defense agreement where war
against Cuba would mean war against Russia. If Russia wanted a war
this would be a good excuse. Remember the Russians could have struck
at any time. This represented a good chance to start a war if that's
what Russia wanted.
The next day or two I read the paper, listened to the radio, and
watched what was on television. It became apparent that Russia was not
going to retaliate and they abandoned the missile sites.It resolved
itself within a couple of days.
* As a student, I thought that if war broke out I would probably be
drafted quickly. The other thought that was going around was that if
there were a war it probably wouldn't last more than a week because we
would both use all our bombs and there would be nobody left. But
nobody really knew. *
(Read more)
===
Memories of A Young Cryptographer
http://web.archive.org/web/20020616011626/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/JG_3.19.html
==
"My Dad's View on the Cuban Missile Crisis:"
http://web.archive.org/web/20011121053443/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/rk_3.19.html
Q: What do you remember about the events leading up to the Cuban
Missile Crisis?
A: I was somewhere between my sophomore and junior year in high school
at the time, and I didn't pay much attention to the entire thing. I
didn't really read the newspaper or watch the news on TV, so I wasn't
effected very much at the time......at that time my biggest concerns
were making the varsity basketball team, and whether or not the
Yankees would win the World Series.
Q: Do you remember your parents talking about the event at all?
A: Oh no, they are not the type that would talk about it. I don't
think my parents were afraid of Cuba, but they were very
anti-communist as I suspect a number of recent immigrants were. After
escaping from W.W.II there were anti-just about everything. If they
had talked about it, I am sure they would have come out extremely
pro-Kennedy. They would want him to take the strongest possible
stance. They wouldn't have been upset if Kennedy had bombed Cuba.
(Read more)
==
Interesting view from a military perspective....though I have only
included the personal feelings. Read more at
http://web.archive.org/web/20020616012121/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/mz_3.19.html
Q: Did you listen to the radio a lot?
A: I don't think so, I don't think as much as TV, or maybe you know,
driving around we would listen to the radio. I think that the radio
today has gotten there wasn't the same kind of radio coverage...then
as there is today.
Q: How was the atmosphere on the base. you said everyone was working
12 hour shifts.
A: Sure, it was a lot of concern and a lot of energy I think people
were professionally I think they took it in stride. I think a lot of
the things that we'd done we'd always done before so it wasn't
completely unfamiliar but it was just for the most part everyone
realized it was a very grave situation.
Q: Did you think you were going to die?
A: No, I never had that feeling.
===
Excerpts from an interesting interview:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020616012839/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/pj_3.19.html
(My father was in Harvard Law School at the time. He describes his
recollection as foggy. He thinks his sources for information were the
television and the New York Times. When I ask him about his impression
of the events, we spend a few minutes getting dates and names
straight---my father, at least during my lifetime, has always kept
himself abreast of current events, geopolitics, and political figures
(friendly or belligerent); he was a history major at Stanford.)
Me: So like, what was your impression of the events at the time?
My father: Oh, it was a scary time, I guess, I remember Kennedy coming
on the television and telling us it was a scary time. I think Kennedy
was right. I seem to recall there was some kind of agreement with
Kruschev involving Turkey, but we didn't know about that at the time.
But, it was a long time ago. I remember it was frightening.
Me: So what was your opinion of Castro and Cuba at the time?
My father: My impression of Cuba was that it had a typical Latin
American dictator, rich upper class, with Mafia ties, and that Havana
was nice if you were rich. That there was a lot of gambling.
Me: Wait. You mean before the revolution.
My Father: Yes.
Me: What about after?
My father: Well, Castro turned out to be a jerk; it wasn't clear that
he would at first. It became clear that Castro was a real jerk. Cuba
was worse off than it was under Batista. Castro had that stringy
beard, dirty military uniform, smoked a lot of cigars. He gave a lot
of long speeches. He's a jerk.
Me: Is that just your opinion or did, like, the media feel the same
way?
My father: Yes. I guess, in all seriousness, Castro lacked stability
and that, combined with the Communist hegemony, frightened the US. It
frightened Kennedy.
Me: So you're saying that Castro and Cuba were like a vessel for the
threat?
My father: Yes. It was clear that Castro was being financial supported
by the Russians. It really was a long time ago.
Me: I think it's strange that an event like Kennedy's assassination
lasts longer than the Cuban Missile Crisis. I mean people remember
where they were when Kennedy was shot, but you seem to have a hard
time recalling the Missile crisis, even though it was a potential more
dangerous event.
My father: Well, they're different kinds of events, son. Kennedy had
his brains shot out in front of the American people; the Cuban Missile
crisis was a big game of poker.
===
Excerpt from "Phone interview with my mother."
http://web.archive.org/web/20020616011632/www.stg.brown.edu/projects/projects.old/classes/mc166k/ap_3.19.html
""During the Missile Crisis of '62 I was in seventh grade, I was at
Valley Stream North High School which was located in Franklin Square
Long Island, New York. I remember that there was a lot of tension,
there was an horrendous amount of tension. I know that my mother was
very frightened and tense and everybody really was, and you know,
people were glued to the television, but naturally I went to school
the following day as everybody tried to go along with their lives and
I remember I was in the bathroom of the school and I was looking in
the mirror putting makeup on when they had said over the loud speaker
that everyone had to immediately- that there was an emergency, that
everyone had to return to their homerooms immediately and get
instruction from their homeroom teacher. And it was probably one of
the scariest moments of my life, it was like the sensation that our
country could go to war and I didn't understand at all what it was
about, but the fact that the country could go to war at any moment was
really really present. I went back to my classroom and we were told
that there was a military alert and it was with Cuba and that Cuba had
missiles from the Soviet Union pointing in the direction of the United
States, and that Kennedy was going to take action and the action could
in fact result in the declaration of war. It was chilling, it was
scary, it was really nauseating... I remember that there was some
question as to whether or not we were told to go under the desks or
something. I know earlier in my life we had regular air raid drills, a
regular routine. You would go under your desk and you would put your
head between your legs under your desk and you would cover your head
with your hands. But when this happened with the Cuban Missile Crisis
we did not go under our desks, I really don't remember that, but I do
remember being brought together by the homeroom teacher and being--and
it being presented to us as a national alert that could be the
declaration of war. That night I went home, and my mother, when she
went to work that day, and she worked in a hospital, she had a button,
and this is all pre-the 60's movement, the anti-war movement of the
60's. Well, my mother had this button that she had had from years
prior, that was distributed out of the United Nations, it was like an
early United Nations button, and it was a ceramic blue button with the
lines of the earth on it, like the equator, and in it was a bird of
peace, and I know she wore it to work, and she said people came up to
her all day long and would touch it, touch the button, and some people
cried, that there was this kind of state of alarm in the country that
was pretty staggering."
Read more....
==========
From "Families shattered, memories intact," by Mary Jo Melone. St.
Petersburg Times. (4/27/2000)
http://www.sptimes.com/News/042700/TampaBay/Families_shattered__m.shtml
My friend Silvia Curbelo and I, both children in the early '60s, were
comparing memories. We were not talking about dollhouses and games,
but about preparing for war. I called it the Cuban missile crisis.
"We called it the American missile crisis," Silvia said.
She was not quite 7 then and still living in Cuba with her parents.
I was 10, living in a pink house in a patch of American suburbia.
I recalled being told by my teachers, who spoke as though they
honestly believed we would survive a nuclear attack, to crawl under my
desk and put my hands over my head. If I got up, I was never to look
in the direction of the blast.
Silvia's story was naturally just like mine.
"My father told me to grab a pencil and put it between my teeth and
get under my bed," she said. "I don't know why he wanted me to have
the pencil, maybe so if I screamed, I wouldn't bite my tongue."
We ended up laughing over cafe con leche at a Latin restaurant in
Tampa's Town 'N Country. We were laughing over how, as children, we
took the possibility of the end of the world in stride.
==
Memories from a Cuban perspective:
From "For Cubans, missile crisis was a time of courage," by Mathew Hay
Brown. The Morning Call. (10/11/2002)
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/all-missile1011,0,7580446.story
"But while Americans remember the Cuban missile crisis as a moment
when the world seemed to teeter on the edge of nuclear armageddon, to
Cubans it was a time of courage and defiance, a brief instance when
the little country had the strength to stand up to its overwhelming
adversary.
"A war would have been horrible," says Salvador Massip Soto, who was a
member of the Cuban Air Force in October 1962. "But what I remember
most, the thing that still calls my attention, is that there was no
fear."
Indeed, Cubans say it wasn't until Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
agreed to take the missiles back -- a deal Castro learned about
through news reports -- that they felt vulnerable.
"Many eyes of Cuban and Soviet men who had been willing to give their
lives with sublime dignity filled with tears when the surprising,
sudden and practically unconditional decision to withdraw the arms was
announced," a bitter Castro wrote to Khrushchev days after the
agreement. Perhaps you are unaware the extent to which the Cuban
people had prepared themselves to fulfill their duty to their country
and to humanity."
==
Eleven years old at the time, Rafael Saumell Muoz remembers images of
Castro and Kennedy flickering across the family television screen. He
recalls shortages of milk, butter, rice and beans during the crisis,
and seeing U.S. planes flying low over the island. Looking out over
the Malec from his father's high-rise apartment in Havana, he says, he
could see the line of U.S. ships stretching across the horizon.
"Obviously we were very aware of retaliation the Americans were ready
to take against Cubans," Saumell Muoz says. "People were concerned
about dying, and losing everything. But I want to stress this point. I
don't remember that my family ever lost their sense of humor. The
adults kept their sense of hope."
Other Cubans share similar memories. "There was no terror. There was
no panic," Massip Soto says.
But with Soviet ships approaching the blockade, Kennedy preparing for
action, and Castro deploying all of Cuba's military to defend the
island, not everyone was calm.
Forty years after the crisis, Pena Martinez still sees injustice in
the U.S. focus on Cuba.
"There is no paper, no document that says only the great powers have a
right to have nuclear weapons," the museum guide says. "The United
States doesn't attack Russia. The United States doesn't attack China.
The large ones respect each other. The little ones fall by the
wayside.
"The only way to avoid war is to arm yourself. We would have preferred
to die fighting than to give up the missiles."
==
Military Memories
"Beach Jumpers at the Heart of the Cuban Missile Crisis October 1962."
The Cuban Missile Crisis through the eyes of a Beach Jumper who was
there. By: Vince Piscitelli (Seaman, USN)
http://www.beachjumpers.com/CubaCrisis.htm
==
From "New Leadership of the Global Security Institute, Inspired By
Legacy of Senator Alan Cranston, Hosts 13 Days Screening for
Congressional Audience." GSI Report. February 16, 2001
http://www.gsinstitute.org/archives/000004.shtml
Secretary McNamara, who helped guide President Kennedy through the
crisis, reflected on his memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis and his
views on the ongoing nuclear threat.
"In the end we avoided nuclear war by a hair’s breadth," McNamara
said. "And it didn’t have a damn thing to do with the so-called best
and the brightest. The basic thrust of [the movie] is absolutely
correct. We came that close to nuclear war. It was luck that prevented
us from blundering into it. And the conclusion you should come to is
that the indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear
weapons will lead to destruction of nations."
==
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