The American nuclear war plan was known as the Single Integrated Operational Plan, SIOP for short. Kennedy had been horrified by the first such plan, SIOP-62, which called for the dispatch of 2,258 missiles and bombers carrying 3,423 nuclear weapons against 1,077 'military and urban-industrial targets' scattered throughout the 'Sino-Soviet bloc.' One adviser characterized the plan as 'orgiastic, Wagnerian.' Another described it as 'a massive, total, comprehensive, obliterating strategic attack…on everything Red.' Among other points, it envisaged the virtual annihilation of the tiny Balkan country of Albania. Even though China (and Albania) had rejected Moscow's tutelage, no distinction was made between different Communist states. All were targeted for destruction.
'And we call ourselves the human race,' was Kennedy's sardonic comment, when briefed about the plan.
Appalled by the all-or-nothing choices in SIOP-62, the Kennedy administration drew up a new plan, known as SIOP-63. Despite its title, this one came into effect in the summer of 1962. It allowed the president several 'withhold' options, including China and Eastern Europe, and made some attempt to distinguish between cities and military targets. Nevertheless, the plan was still built around the notion of a single devastating strike that would totally destroy the Soviet Union's ability to make war.
None of these options appealed to Kennedy at the moment of actual decision. He had asked the Pentagon how many people would die if a single Soviet missile got through and landed somewhere near an American city. The answer was six hundred thousand. 'That's the total number of casualties in the Civil War,' JFK exploded. 'And we haven't gotten over that in a hundred years.' As he later acknowledged, the twenty-four intermediate-range Soviet missiles in Cuba constituted 'a substantial deterrent to me.'
He had privately concluded that nuclear weapons were 'only good for deterring.' He thought it 'insane that two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, should be able to decide to bring an end to civilization.'
CHAPTER TEN
Shootdown
After taking off from McCoy Air Force Base, Rudolf Anderson flew down the east coast of Florida. Reaching his cruising height of seventy-two thousand feet, twice the altitude of a commercial airliner, he could see the earth curving away beneath him. Even though it was still midmorning, the skies began to blacken as he entered the upper layers of the stratosphere. American air defenses had been warned about the mysterious plane, but were not allowed to contact him. The U-2 pilot sent a coded signal forty-seven minutes after takeoff as he exited American airspace. He had been instructed to maintain radio silence until he reentered American airspace a few minutes after noon.
From the cockpit of the U-2, Anderson could see the sandy white beaches of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, one of Hemingway's favorite fishing spots. His flight would take him on a diagonal slant across Cuba over the town of Camaguey. He would make a left turn over the SAM site at Manzanillo on Cuba's southern coast, and follow the Sierra Maestra Mountains past Guantanamo to the eastern tip of the island. He would then make another sharp left turn, heading back toward Florida.
As Anderson entered Cuban airspace over Cayo Coco, his U-2 was picked up and tracked by Soviet air defenses. Soviet officers made a note of the time he entered ? 9:12 local time ? and alerted the rest of the air defense system.
Anderson switched on his camera as he headed for the first SAM site outside the little town of Esmeralda. He could feel a familiar series of thumps from the camera bay beneath him as the camera swung back and forth from horizon to horizon, clicking away furiously. Making a photo run was similar to making a bombing run: the pilot's main task was to keep the 'platform' as steady as possible as he flew over the target. The camera was a monstrous piece of equipment, with a focal length of thirty-six inches. When fully loaded, it contained roughly a mile of film. In order to maintain the balance of the aircraft, the film was sliced into two nine-inch-wide strips that were spooled in opposite directions and later reassembled.
The morning ExComm session had been under way in the Cabinet Room of the White House for just seven minutes when Anderson entered Cuban airspace. It began, as usual, with an intelligence briefing from McCone. There was a brief discussion about stopping the
An aide handed the president a flash news item that had just been torn off the Associated Press ticker. He scanned it quickly, and read it aloud:
BULLETIN
MOSCOW, OCT. 27 (AP) ? PREMIER KHRUSHCHEV TOLD PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN A MESSAGE TODAY HE WOULD WITHDRAW OFFENSIVE WEAPONS FROM CUBA IF THE UNITED STATES WITHDREW ITS ROCKETS FROM TURKEY.
27 OCT 1018A
'Hmmm,' objected a startled Bundy, the national security adviser. 'He didn't.'
'That's how it's read by both of the associations that have put it out so far,' said Ted Sorensen. The Reuters bulletin was timed 1015, three minutes earlier. It was worded almost identically.
'He didn't…'
'He didn't really say that, did he?'
'No, no.'
As was often the case, Kennedy was one step ahead of his aides. Khrushchev had made no mention of a possible Cuba-Turkey swap in the private message that he had sent the previous day via the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. But it was quite possible that this was an entirely new proposal. The Soviets might have just upped the ante. That would change everything.
'He may be putting out another letter,' Kennedy speculated. He called out to his press secretary. 'Pierre? Pierre?'
Pierre Salinger stuck his head around the door.
'That wasn't in the letter we received, was it?'
'No, I read it pretty carefully. It doesn't read that way to me.'
'Well, let's just sit tight on it.' As the ExComm members waited for more news from the wire services, Kennedy turned his attention back to the surveillance flights. He had some doubts about the nighttime mission, the first of its kind over Cuba. It was difficult to predict how the Soviets and Cubans would react to the Air Force pyrotechnics. Bundy and McNamara thought it was important to 'keep the heat' on. Work on the missile sites was continuing day and night. Swayed by the arguments of his aides, JFK gave tentative approval to the proposed night flights.
'It's all right with me,' he said finally.
But he quickly injected a qualification. 'I think we might have one more conversation about it, however. At about six o'clock, just in case during the day we get something important.'
'All right, sir,' agreed McNamara.
The Soviet air defense system for eastern Cuba was headquartered in Camaguey, an old colonial town known as 'the Maze' because of its intricate street pattern. The division staff had moved into expropriated church buildings in the city center. Their combat command post was about a mile outside town, in a two-story mansion
