When John F. Kennedy was faced with the evidence of nuclear weapons in Cuba, there were several courses of action he could undertake, each with their own pros and cons:

  • A full scale-invasion of Cuba
    Pros
    - Would guarantee the elimination of all the missiles
    - Could possibly lead to the overthrow of Fidel Castro

    Cons
    - Would take more than a week to put together, and it would be obvious what the U.S. was planning to do.
    - Would place thousands of American lives at risk
    - An extreme response that would damage U.S. reputation

  • A series of air strikes attempting to take out the missile installations
    Pros
    - Could be ordered and executed at a moments notice.
    - Places less lives in danger than the invasion plan

    Cons
    - Even hundreds of sorties would not be able to take out all the missiles. Forcing either a diplomatic solution or a ground mop-up operation to ensure they had all been destroyed.
    - Still not totally safe, as the Soviets had also installed SAM sites and MiG fighter jets to protect the missiles

  • A blockade of the island to prevent more weapons from coming in and attempting to negotiate with the Soviets about removing the missiles.
    Pros
    - Puts the least amount of lives at risk
    - Could be undertaken with relative speed
    - The U.S. looks like the good guy

    Cons
    - Relies on convincing the Soviets to pull out the missiles and might lead to extending the crisis even longer.
    - Giving major concessions might be seen as a victory for the Soviets.
    - Seeking a diplomatic solution might be seen as a sign of weakness.
    - Possibility of a major incident, such as a ship full of medicine tries to run the blockade (even though it would have been allowed to go if searched) and then is sunk by U.S. forces, killing many innocents on board.

It was not as though President Kennedy could just ignore the missiles in Cuba, not only were they a danger to the people of the United States, but the mere existence of a crisis was also a threat to the people of Berlin. The city of Berlin lay inside Soviet-controlled territory and construction of the Berlin wall had begun one year earlier, splitting the city in half. The plight of the people of Berlin was always close to the minds of the people in the Kennedy administration, especially since they could all recall the Berlin blockade that had taken place only 12 years earlier. Kennedy himself had also written a book in 1940 entitled Why England Slept about the failure of appeasement the need for military response against totalitarian regimes.

Berlin was one of the major possible flashpoints during the Cold War, and in the months leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis there had been rumblings in the intelligence community that the Soviets were going to make a major move on Berlin before the end of 1962. Many of Kennedy’s advisors felt that the movements in Cuba were just a precursor or a feint for a larger operation. They feared that Nikita Khrushchev was angling for a reason to attack: If the Americans ignored the missiles or showed any weakness, then Khrushchev would see this as an opening to attack Berlin. If the Americans staged an assault on Cuba that destroyed Russian missiles and killed Russian missile crews, then Khrushchev could use that as a pretense to attack Berlin. If Berlin is attacked then…

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara: Well, when we’re talking about taking Berlin, what do we mean exactly? Does he take it with Soviet troops?
President Kennedy: That’s what it would seem to me.
McNamara: We have U.S. troops there. What do they do?
General Maxwell Taylor: They fight
McNamara: They fight, I think that’s perfectly clear.
President Kennedy: And they get overrun
McNamara: Yes, they get overrun, exactly.
Unidentified: Well, you have a direct confrontation.
Robert Kennedy: Then what do we do?
Taylor: Go to general war, if it’s in our interest.
President Kennedy: You mean nuclear exchange?
Taylor: Guess you have to.
Secretary of State Dean Rusk: You’d have to start at least with tactical nuclear weapons if he tried to attack Berlin.

It must be made clear the several different ways that the Crisis could have led to a major nuclear exchange. Not only was there the Berlin scenario, where any sort of military attack on Berlin would have triggered an immediate nuclear response, but also the possible response by the Russian missile teams in Cuba once they realize they’re under attack. Would the Russian teams just decide to launch the missiles in a last ditch effort? How would the Soviet government react to a surprise air strike or invasion in Cuba? Would they just see it as the beginning of a general conventional attack and decide to launch their ICBMs?

President Kennedy chose to take the blockade option. Choosing to call it a “quarantine”, all ships attempting to enter Cuba were stopped and searched by the American military. If the ships carried any weaponry, they were not allowed to pass. Negotiations were opened with the Soviets with the implicit threat that if they did not proceed smoothly, air strikes would commence to take out the missiles. A SAM site also shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Cuba, only adding to the tension.

The Soviets initially demanded that the United States remove nuclear missile installations that had been placed in Turkey in the 1950s. After several tense days of negotiation the Soviets officially agreed to dismantle the missiles under the watch of U.N. weapons inspectors, while asking only that the United States agreed to never again invade Cuba. Unofficially, the U.S. had also agreed to pull their Jupiter missiles out of Turkey, but one of the stipulations of this decision was that it was never to be broadcast. The Jupiter missiles were dismantled in April 1963, under the guise of the U.S. upgrading their European arsenal. At the same time, an American Polaris missile submarine took up residence in the Mediterranean.

In the end, President Kennedy made the right decision. When faced with real evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the American President chose not a military solution that would have caused the deaths of thousands of people and mired the U.S. in a difficult occupation of another country, but instead ended the situation peacefully.

Quotes from: The Kennedy Tapes, Ernest R. May and Phillip D. Zelikow, editors. W.W. Norton Publishers, 2001.