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Crisis Center
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Causes of the Crisis
The Soviet decision to deploy missiles in Cuba can be broken down into two categories: 1) Soviet insecurity, and 2) the fear of losing Cuba in an invasion.
During his presidential campaign, Kennedy had repeatedly spoken of a missile gap between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Despite being briefed by the Pentagon that the U.S. had more missiles than the Soviets, Kennedy maintained his claim that the U.S. had less. After the 1960 election, Khrushchev began to test the new president. In the summer of 1961 Khrushchev applied pressure to Berlin and eventually built a wall surrounding West Berlin. In response, the Kennedy Administration felt it necessary to reveal to Khrushchev that there was in fact no missile gap. Khrushchev had always known the U.S. had more missiles but now he knew that the Americans knew. Khrushchev also knew that Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe but U.S. missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union.
 Additionally, Khrushchev felt like a man boxed in by enemies. For example, he cited the U.S. missiles in Turkey just 150 miles from the U.S.S.R. Cuba was only 90 miles off the coast of Florida but the 60 mile difference was "nothing for a missile," Khrushchev said. Most of all, however, Khrushchev feared a first-strike by the U.S. If the Soviet Union lost the arms race so badly, he worried, it would invite a first-strike nuclear attack from the U.S. Consequently, Khrushchev began looking for a way to counter the United State's lead.
A Cuban Invasion
The second of the two major causes was Cuba's fear of invasion from the U.S. Since he had come to power in 1959, Cuban Premier Fidel Castro was aware of several U.S. attempts to oust him. First, was the failed Bay of Pigs invasion by CIA-backed Cuban exiles in 1961. Second, was a U.S. military exercise in 1962. The Armed Forces conducted a mock invasion of a Caribbean island to overthrow a fictitious dictator whose name, Ortsac, was Castro spelled backwards. Additionally, the U.S. was drafting a plan to invade Cuba (Operation Mongoose). The mock invasion and invasion plan were devised to keep Castro nervous. Finally, the CIA had also been running covert operations throughout Cuba trying to damage the Castro government. Consequently, Castro was convinced the U.S. was serious about invading Cuba.
The Build-up Begins
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In April 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range missiles in Cuba. A deployment in Cuba would double the Soviet strategic arsenal and provide a real deterrent to a potential U.S. attack against the Soviet Union or Cuba. Khrushchev promoted the KGB station chief in Cuba Alexander Alexeev to Ambassador to negotiate for Castro's approval of the plan. Castro did not openly reject the idea at first, but instead he gave it serious consideration. Believing it better to risk a great crisis than wait impotently for an invasion, Castro accepted Khrushchev's offer. In mid-July of 1962 the Soviet Union began its buildup of offensive weapons in Cuba.
