Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy

I would consider this letter one of the most important in World History because the back and forth letters from Kennedy to Khrushchev in October of 1962 kept the world from full-scale nuclear war. This letter tells Kennedy that the Soviet Union is pulling the weapons out of Cuba but that the US should refrain from flying over Cuban or Soviet airspace, as a plane could be confused with a nuclear bomber, which would cause retaliation. He mentions that there was an incident a few months ago when a U2 Spy Plane was caught over Soviet airspace and it was blamed on poor weather. Although Khrushchev says he trusts Kennedy, and that there was indeed poor weather, I'm not sure if he actually believes it. Next he says, "A still more dangerous case occurred on 28 October, when one of your reconnaissance planes intruded over Soviet borders in the Chukotka Peninsula area in the north and flew over our territory. The question is, Mr. President: How should we regard this. What is this: A provocation? One of your planes violates our frontier during this anxious time we are both experiencing, when everything has been put into combat readiness. Is it not a fact that an intruding American plane could be easily taken for a nuclear bomber, which might push us to a fateful step? And all the more so since the U.S. Government and Pentagon long ago declared that you are maintaining a continuous nuclear bomber patrol." (Merton 57) This seems to be very threatening to me, but I suppose it was understandable if the US was constantly sending Spy Planes over Russia. Khrushchev claims that they must protect Cuba because there are many Soviet citizens living there, and many threats to them, including pirates. I think he probably just threw pirates in there so he didn't have to say that he wants to protect Cuba from the US. Khrushchev ends by reminding Kennedy that the Soviet people value peace more than anyone, after experiencing the horrors of Hitlers campaign against them.


Merton, Thomas. Cold War Letters. New York: Orbis Books, 2006.