Thirteen Days in October

A day-by-day examination of the world's most dangerous nuclear standoff.

BY MICHAEL DOBBS, RACHEL DOBBS | OCTOBER 8, 2012

On Oct. 9, the U.S. Special Group, responsible for covert actions by the government, authorizes "complete sweeps" of Cuba by U-2 spy planes, firefly drones, and F-101 surveillance planes conducting "low, intermediate and high level missions." At the same time, President Kennedy orders that intelligence about Soviet missiles be kept under the "tightest possible control." By Oct. 10, the Soviet cargo ship Kurchatov, shown above, leaves for Cuba from Kaliningrad carrying nuclear warhead equipment for R-14 missiles. The next day, Oct. 11, another cargo ship -- the Nikolaevsk -- leaves from Kaliningrad and heads for Cuba with more equipment for R-14 missiles.

National Security Archive

 

Michael Dobbs is a prizewinning foreign correspondent and the author of a bestselling book about the Cuban missile crisis, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. He writes Foreign Policy's On the Brink blog.

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