One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

William Morrow, 1986), 465. I have relied on Szulc for most of Castro's early biographical details.

'Fatigued by talking': 'The Fidel Castro I know,' Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cuba News, August 2, 2006.

The streets of Havana: Prensa Latina dispatch by Sergio Pineda, October 24, 1962.

'They were geared': Maurice Halperin, Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 191.

'We have won the war': Szulc, 30.

'a much bigger': Ibid., 51. Castro later claimed that he wrote this letter at a time of great emotion and that it did not reflect his true feelings toward America. His argument is unconvincing, and seems geared to an international audience. Copies of the letter to Sanchez are prominently displayed in Cuban museums for the domestic audience.

'We are going ahead': Hugh Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 445.

'an illiterate and ignorant': Halperin, 81.

The sugar harvest: Ibid., 124-5, 160.

'sectarianism': See, e.g., report of Hungarian ambassador Janos Beck, December 1, 1962, Havana 2002, vol. 2.

When Khrushchev first broached: See, e.g., Alekseev quoted in Fursenko and Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble, 179.

'many mobile ramps': Mary McAuliffe, CIA Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis (Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1992), 105. The pilot's name was Claudio Morinas. The report was disseminated within the CIA on September 20, 1962.

'missiles on Cuban territory': Henry Brandon, Special Relationships (New York: Atheneum, 1988), 172.

'the pass at Thermopylae': Szulc, 445.

Carved out of the soft limestone: Author's visit to Cueva de los Portales, March 2006. The caves have been turned into a museum and shrine to Che.

'an extraordinary man': Jorge Castaneda, Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (New York: Knopf, 1997), 83.

'our old, much lamented': Ibid., 62.

'too much freedom': Ibid., 71.

Castro had reserved half: Blight and Welch, On the Brink, 398.

Timur Gaidar: The father of Yegor Gaidar, Russia's first post-Communist prime minister. Decades later, Yevtushenko gleefully told the story of how, as a small boy living with his father in Havana, the father of Russian capitalism 'pissed on my beautiful white suit' ? author's interview, June 2006. See also Yevtushenko, article in Novaya Gazeta, July 11, 2005.

'Has Moscow called?': Timur Gaidar, Grozi na Yuge (Moscow: Voennoe Izdatelstvo, 1984), 159.

CHAPTER FOUR: 'EYEBALL TO EYEBALL'

The previous evening, he and other: NYT, October 24, 1962; Foy Kohler cable to State Department 1065, October 24, 1962, SDX.

'Why, that's Karl': Knox notes on meeting, JFKL.

'If I point a pistol': Beschloss, 496.

'disappear the first day': Roger Hilsman memo to secretary of state, October 26, 1962, OSD.

'Saying Grace': Reeves, 410.

'He opened and closed': RFK, 69–70.

'probably the most memorable day': Dobrynin, 83.

'massive uncertainty': NYT, October 28, 1962.

'sat around wondering': Clinton Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 102-3; see also Dylan interview with Studs Turkel, May 1, 1963.

'We're eyeball': Rusk, 237.

'The meeting droned on': RFK, 72.

'SECRET. FROM HIGHEST': CINCLANTFLT message 241523Z, CNO Cuba, USNHC. The order was also passed on by single sideband radio from Navy Plot ? Vice Adm. Griffin notes, October 24, 1962, CNO Cuba, USNHC.

The Kimovsk was nearly: The Kimovsk's position at 0930, October 24, was 27deg18'N, 55deg42'W, according to CINCLANTFLT message 241950Z, CNO Cuba, USNHC. The Essex's position at 0900 on October 24 was 23deg20'N, 67deg20'W, according to ship logs now at NARA. Erroneous accounts of Soviet ship positions are given in Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision, 2nd ed. (New York: Longman, 1999), 233, 348-9, and Fursenko and Naftali, Khrushchev's Cold War, 477, 615. The U.S. Navy concluded on October 25 that the Soviet ships had turned around at 0700 Zulu time on October 23, 3:00 a.m. in Washington, 10:00 a.m. in Moscow ? CNO Office logs, October 25, USNHC. According to Soviet records, the turnaround orders began going out at 6:00 a.m. on October 23 ? see notes in chapter two.

'turned around when confronted': McAuliffe, 297. McCone's information was incorrect. JFK noted at the ExComm meeting that an intercept attempt would be made between 10:30 and 11:00.

only 'a few miles' apart: RFK, 68–72; see also Schlesinger, Robert Kennedy and His Times, 537, which draws on RFK's account.

'en route to the Baltic': CIA report, October 25, 1962, CREST.

The naval staff suspected: Brugioni, Eyeball to Eyeball, 391. Some of the reported positions for Soviet ships, including the Aleksandrovsk and the Poltava, were clearly false. For accuracy of direction fixes, see JFK3, 238.

He had visited Flag Plot: CNO, Report on the Naval Quarantine of Cuba, USNHC.

Communications circuits were overloaded: CNO Office logs, October 24, 1962, CNO Cuba, USNHC.

That afternoon, NSA received: Message from director, NSA, October 24, 1962, NSA Cryptotologic Museum, Fort Meade, MD.

'in a position to reach': JFK3, 41.

'surprise attacks': Anderson message 230003Z, CNO Cuba, USNHC.

'I give you my word': Kohler cable to State Department, 979, October 16, 1962, SDX.

'the appearance of': CINCLANT (Dennison) message to JCS 312250Z, CNO Cuba, USNHC.

'Initial class probable sub': U.S. Navy messages 241610Z and 250533Z, CNO Cuba, USNHC, also available through 'The Submarines of October,' Electronic Briefing Book 75, NSAW. The submarine was located at 25deg25'N, 63deg40'W. It was dubbed 'C-18' by the Navy.

What had started off: See Gary E. Weir and Walter J. Boyne, Rising Tide: The Untold Story of the Russian Submarines That Fought the Cold War (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 79–98, for an account of the B-130 journey, based on interviews with Capt. Nikolai Shumkov.

'special camps are being prepared': Savranskaya, 'New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis,' Journal of Strategic Studies (April 2005).

Shumkov understood the power: Weir and Boyne, 79–80; Aleksandr Mozgovoi, Kubinskaya Samba Kvarteta Fokstrotov (Moscow: Voenni bibliography Entryd, 2002), 69.

'If they slap you': Savranskaya, 'New Sources.' See this article also for conflicting evidence over whether Soviet submarine captains had the authority to use nuclear torpedoes if attacked.

The information on the overhead screens: SAC historians jotted down the daily totals and recorded them in