July in Focus

The events leading up to the Cuban missile crisis as the Soviet military buildup in Cuba gathered momentum exactly half a century ago.

BY RACHEL DOBBS | JULY 17, 2012


To mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis later this year, Foreign Policy is launching "Cuban Missile Crisis +50" -- a detailed chroncile of the events, decisions, and key figures of this epochal Cold War confrontation. Our guide is FP blogger and noted historian Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. Join us as we take a closer look at key events in the months running up to the infamous 13 days in October. We begin 50 years ago, in July 1962.

July 6, 1962

Issa Pliyev, shown above, is appointed as the commander of Soviet forces in Cuba by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

The Inter-regional Association of Internationalist Fighters (Mezhregional'naya Assotsiatsia Voinov-Internationalistov) 

 

Rachel Dobbs is a research assistant with the Cuban Missile Crisis +50 project. You can follow the project on Twitter at @missilecrisis62.