On Oct. 4, the Soviet cargo ship Indigirka docked in the port of Mariel, Cuba, with the first shipment of nuclear warheads to arrive on the island. The ship was carrying six atom bombs, 36 warheads for long-range R-12 missiles, and a further 36 warheads for short-range FKR missiles. Together, these weapons have over 20 times the explosive power of all the bombs dropped on Germany by the Allies in World War II. (Click here for a closer look at nuclear stockpiles in 1962.)
While chairing a meeting of the CIA Cuban covert operations group -- called the Operation Mongoose committee -- in Washington, Robert "Bobby" Kennedy, the president's brother and the U.S. attorney general (shown above), calls for "considerably more sabotage" against Cuba. The CIA decides to consider plans for the mining of Cuban harbor and the capture and interrogation of Cuban forces.
Meanwhile, at Kennedy's instruction, the U.S. Air Force builds mock-ups of Soviet SA-2 missile launchers to prepare pilots for bombing runs.
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