The crew of Soviet Submarine B-59 braced themselves. The gravity of the situation was quickly grasped by all those who languished in the oily, sweltering bowels of B-59 which patrolled the murky depths of the Caribbean Sea. They had been detected by a task force of the US Navy. This, of course, was not unexpected. The operation to which the vessel had been assigned was dangerous, the men already knew that they would be extremely lucky to return home. On the surface, relations between the United States of America and the USSR had reached boiling point. The positioning of nuclear-armed missiles on hitherto small and insignificant Cuba had incurred an unequivocal response from the United States: the weapons would be removed, even if it meant war. The Soviet government was not one to back down in the face of an American ultimatum. Cargo ships carrying military equipment that would bolster the island’s defences in the event of an American attack were promptly dispatched, only for the United States to deploy its Navy into the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, thus imposing a quarantine zone through which Soviet-flagged ships were forbidden to pass. B-59 was tasked with defending these vessels against an attack by the US Navy.
The early part of the voyage had been uneventful, but clearly that short burst of luck had run out. Underwater explosions, which indicated that the American warships had begun to drop depth charges, seemed to shake the vessel to its bolts and rivets. Pipes split open, spraying water whilst the dim lights blinked and fizzled. As this chaos unfolded, a heated row ensued in the command centre between Captain Valentin Savitsky, the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov and the commander of the submarine detachment Vasili Arkhipov. Should the submarine launch the nuclear-armed torpedo that it was equipped with and wipe out the attacking US-force in a single, deadly blow? Arkhipov was unconvinced, but Savitsky and Maslennikov were unanimous in the view that B-59 was now under fully-fledged attack by the US Navy. It was only right that the submarine should use all available means to defend itself. The order was issued and steadfastly executed by the crew who manned the torpedo bay. Minutes later, a woosh of oxygen signified the fact that the nuclear torpedo had been fired and was now propelling itself, ever faster, towards the American warships.
Upon reaching its target, the projectile detonated. A huge shockwave resonated from the epicentre of the explosion, creating a huge tsunami. The US destroyers were snapped and twisted as if they were twigs whilst the mighty aircraft carrier USS Randolph broke clean in two then sunk rapidly. In a deadly act lasting mere seconds, thousands of lives had been extinguished and first shot of the Third World War fired. The reaction of the US government was decisive and swift. Nuclear armed bombers rolled down the runways of air bases across the continental United States, missiles streaked into the sky headed towards the sprawling Soviet Union on the other side of the world. At sea, submarines surfaced to launch their nuclear weapons and contribute to this fiery pandaemonium. The Soviet Union responded in kind and in little more than twelve hours all the glories of human civilisation had been wiped away in a nuclear maelstrom - and so, to paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, it might have gone.
Of course, the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved through diplomatic means. However, it is important to acknowledge how close to the brink the Soviet-Cuban alliance brought the entire world. On the 27th of October 1962, as American warships circled around the Soviet submarine B52 assigned to the defence of the USSR’s newfound ally, the forces of fate and history teetered on a pinpoint. Under American attack, the Soviet officers aboard the submarine maintained admirable restraint and, rather than opting to fire upon the task force, surfaced then turned their vessel homewards. It is incredible to think that everything - the future survival of humanity and the world - rested on the shoulders of three men under incredible pressure. In that single encounter, the course of human history was determined.
Just as remarkable is the fact that the small island nation of Cuba found itself as the centre of the defining international crisis of the post-war era. Indeed, the alliance forged with the USSR in the early 1960s was an accident of history. Only ten years before, Cuba was a mere satellite of the United States. Ruled by a corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista who was little more than an American puppet, the country was a Caribbean paradise (at least for those who could afford it) where Presidents, Hollywood Celebrities and members of the Mafia rubbed shoulders in the luxurious bars, hotels and nightclubs of Havana. Contrary to popular belief, the 1950s brought great prosperity to Cuba. A spike in demand for commodities such as Sugar - Cuba’s main export - fuelled a rapidly growing economy which, by the mid-1950s achieved a GDP equivalent to that of Italy. However, this facade of prosperity masked great socio-economic inequality. The fruits of Cuba’s economic success were not shared equally by the people of the island. Instead the proceeds were divided between members of the dictatorship and large American corporations which owned 40% of Cuba’s sugar lands, many of the cattle ranches, 90% of the mines and practically all the oil. Much of the population lived a meagre and poverty-stricken existence, the average family income of $6 per week clear evidence of this.
This profound economic inequality triggered the Cuban Revolution and by consequence, the events which culminated in the formation of the Soviet-Cuban alliance. The above considered, coupled with the brutal repression of political opposition, it is not difficult to understand why the people of Cuba rose up. Led by Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Che Guevara, the Cuban rebels fought to overthrow Batista’s dictatorship. At first their struggle seemed hopeless. With the support of the United States, the Cuban military made easy work of the rebels. However, the brutality with which the regime treated its enemies shocked the world and consequently put the US government under great pressure to withdraw its support, which it did in 1958. This marked a decisive turning point in the conflict and less than a year later, in early 1959, the rebels entered Havana victorious. A common misperception is that the Cuban Revolutionaries were out-and-out communists, thus making confrontation with the United States at the height of the Cold War inevitable. Whilst it is true that the Revolutionaries sought socialist solutions to the inequalities with which Cuban society was riven (such as the nationalisation of key industries) their leaders also hoped to cooperate with the United States. Above anything else, this was a common sense decision. After all, the Cuban economy was utterly dependent on sugar exports to the United States.
The first rift in the post-Revolutionary Cuban-US relationship occurred when American-owned oil refineries refused to process oil imported from the USSR. Faced with the prospect of running out of oil, the Cuban government nationalised three US-owned refineries. In the diplomatic tit-for-tat that ensued, the American government imposed an economic embargo against Cuba which provoked the latter into nationalising all US businesses on the island. Cuba was now isolated throughout the Americas and placed beneath increasing economic and diplomatic pressure. Nevertheless, the initial relationship between the newly-installed Cuban government and the Soviet Union was less than friendly. The Soviets suspected that the leaders of the Cuban Revolution were not really true Communists whilst the Cuban government, having escaped the clutches of one superpower was not willing to blithely ensnare itself in those of another. However, subsequent events forced the Cuban government’s hand, drawing it closer into the orbit of the Soviet Union.
The alliance subsequently formed between Cuba and the USSR was one of mutual convenience. In allying themselves with the Soviet Union, the Cubans gained a reliable arms supply and a large market for their exports (now barred from the United States) whilst the Soviets gained a foothold in the American backyard. The pact was consolidated in 1961 following the Bay of Pigs Invasion, authorised by the newly-elected President Kennedy. It is important to briefly consider the importance with which the American government regarded Cuba. Ever since the founding of the United States, successive governments had taken a keen interest in the island. Located right beneath Florida, the Island controlled the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, an occupying power could use the position as a springboard from which to threaten the security of the United States. Although numerous attempts to annex the island had been met with little success, by the early 1900s Washington had established ascendant political influence. In the 1960s, as ever, the situation in Cuba remained a key concern of American strategists. At the height of the Cold War, American statesmen - seemingly concerned at the Cuban government’s move towards alliance with the Soviet Union - decided that the risk of having a Soviet-backed regime on the island was unacceptable and subsequently, authorised the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Between the 17th-20th of April 1961 a group of Cuban exiles who supported Batista, invaded the island with the support of the American government. The invasion was completely routed, but to the Cubans, it confirmed that the United States was an enemy intent on overthrowing the new government. This single act did more for the advancement of Cuban-Soviet relations than anything else. As a result of anti-communist paranoia and through its own miscalculations, the United States had achieved what it set out to prevent. Cuba had now fallen beneath the influence of a hostile foreign power. So as to cement this new alliance, Fidel Castro declared Cuba to be a Socialist nation.
The events which followed, culminating in the Soviet deployment of nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba - the discovery of which triggered the missile crisis - are best understood with the aforesaid context in mind. Again we see the same interplay described above. Both countries acted in accordance with convergent interests. Cuba correctly perceived an existential threat from its large and powerful neighbour to the north and thus demanded that the Soviet Union place nuclear missiles on its territory so as to deter any further aggression. Moscow consented to this request only too willingly. At this point in time, the USSR lacked the necessary long-range missiles to attack the US from afar. However, shorter range missiles based in Cuba would be able strike Washington in under ten minutes. Militarily, this would place the US and Soviet Union on a much more even footing and perhaps even give Moscow sufficient diplomatic leverage to demand the removal of US missiles based in Turkey that posed a similarly severe threat to national security. Nevertheless, the events of 1962 provided foundations for a strong alliance between Havana and Moscow which continued through the duration of the Cold War. From Cuba, the USSR could spread its influence throughout Latin America and destabilize a region that previously had always fallen within the American sphere of influence.
In sum, the alliance between the USSR and Cuba is best understood as an alliance of convenience. It is doubtful that the two countries, on opposite sides of the world, were natural allies. However, that old mantra ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ certainly stands true in the case of Cuban-Soviet relations. Both embroiled in herculean struggles against the United States, both nations found alliance a useful means to an end.
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