Secret's Out: Here's the U.S. Military's 1962 Plan To Conquer Cuba

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Secret's Out: Here's the U.S. Military's 1962 Plan To Conquer Cuba
By: Michael Peck - National Interest News - 05-27-21
Re: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/re...er-cuba-186174

Tags: Cuban Missile Crisis

As it turns out, the U.S. badly underestimated the difficulty of invading Cuba.

Here's What You Need To Remember: The U.S. proclamation was refreshingly direct, if harsh. No pretentious talk of nation-building. The message was clear: the U.S. military controls Cuba. Obey or face the consequences.

Attention, people of Cuba: Obey the orders of the U.S. Army, or suffer the consequences.

This is what the Cubans would have been told, had the United States invaded the island during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

“Resistance to the United States armed forces will be forcefully stamped out. Serious offenders will be dealt with severely,” read a draft proclamation that would have been broadcast to the Cuban people, according to declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive group.

Proclamation No. 1 of the U.S. military occupation would have read:

“To the people of Cuba,

“Whereas the aggressive and illegal acts of the Castro regime against humanity have violated international law and the fundamental principles of freedom and independence of nations: and whereas the United States of America, in order to honor its obligations and to secure itself and the other free nations of the world against the threats generated by these aggressive actions of the Castro regime, has been required to enter into armed conflict with the forces of the Castro regime; and whereas the people of the United States have never during the Castro dictatorship lost their feeling of warm friendship for the people of Cuba and whereas the armed forces of the United States will protect the people of Cuba in the peaceful exercise of their legitimate pursuits insofar as exigencies of war will permit. . . .”

Beneath the velvet we-come-in-peace language was the iron words of a no-nonsense military occupation. Cubans would have been told to obey all orders of U.S. troops, or be hauled before a military court. “Resistance to the United States armed forces will be forcefully stamped out,” the proclamation warned. “Serious offenders will be dealt with severely.”

Cuban schools and courts would be closed until further notice. However, Cuban government officials would remain at their posts.

“When the aggressive Castro regime has been completely destroyed, and arrangements made to provide a democratic government responsive to the desires and needs of the people of Cuba, United States armed forces will depart and the traditional friendship of the United States and the government of Cuba will be assured,” the proclamation concluded with a flourish.

Words like “friendship” and “democratic” might have sounded hollow to Cubans emerging from the rubble of their homes, especially since Cuba had technically not committed an act of war against the United States in 1962 (if anything, the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 could be construed as an act of war by the United States against Cuba).

On the other hand, the U.S. proclamation was refreshingly direct, if harsh. No pretentious talk of nation-building. The message was clear: the U.S. military controls Cuba. Obey or face the consequences. One wonders whether such an approach in Iraq in 2003 might have avoided some of the chaos and bloodshed.

Of course, before an invading army can issue an occupation proclamation, it actually needs to conquer the territory in question. Operation Ortsac, the planned invasion of Cuba, called for amphibious and airborne landings by the First and Second Marine and the Eighty-Second and 101st Airborne divisions.

As it turns out, the U.S. badly underestimated the difficulty of invading Cuba. The Americans estimated there were ten thousand Soviet troops in Cuba. The actual number was forty-three thousand, in addition to 270,000 Cuban regular troops and militia.

More ominously, it wasn’t until 1992 that the United States learned what else awaited an invasion force. “Soviet officials also disclosed that they had sent Havana short-range nuclear weapons and that Soviet commanders there were authorized to use them in the event of an American invasion,” according to the New York Times. There were nine short-range tactical missiles with small six- to twelve-ton nuclear warheads. The missiles didn’t have the range to reach the U.S. mainland, but they could have devastated an assault force.

Just as ominously, Soviet officials later admitted that they had not considered just how the United States, which felt provoked by nuclear-tipped missiles deployed ninety miles from Florida, might have responded to atomic weapons being dropped on its invasion force.

There is no doubt that the United States could have conquered Cuba in 1962. Whether there would have been anything left of Cuba—or America, or Russia—other than radioactive rubble is another matter.

Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest.

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Personal note: I recall this conflict very well back then. We weren't sure when the nukes would be coming but held our breaths. It played out as well as could be expected but all and all - it came pretty close to a nuclear war age. I do believe Kennedy's handled it fairly well - but they really thought about the overall ramifications of such an event and did work out a plan that finally resulted a resolved. It's the closest we came to a nuclear war.
I was in boot camp then - and we knew something was afoot -and would the deal go through - or something unexpected?

(During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. ... Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.)

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President Kennedy did not want the Soviet Union and Cuba to know that he had discovered the missiles. He met in secret with his advisors for several days to discuss the problem. ... The aim of this "quarantine," as he called it, was to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military supplies.

Who won the Cuban missile crisis?

In the end, the Soviet Union came out ahead. Cuba was saved from a U.S. invasion, which was Moscow's principal strategic goal, along with preserving the Castro regime. U.S. missiles in Turkey and Italy (and likely Britain) threatening the USSR were removed, but the story remained secret for decades.
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The ongoing issues today - are not so easy to resolve. Deep down I don't think anyone country wants to start an all out exchange of nukes - but you ever know!? I don't think Russia will start it - but North Korea or China may? Time will tell!
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