Naval Blockade of Cuba - 46 Years Ago Today

[magbana]

Posted on CubaNews

Naval blockade: 46 years ago today
Posted by: "Jane Franklin" [email protected]
Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:21 am (PDT)
Thanks to Walter Lippmann for bringing to our attention this event 46 years
ago today. I invite you to go to my homepage and enter the book, CUBA AND
THE UNITED STATES: A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY, to find the history of the
October 1962 Missile Crisis, starting with top secret Operation Mongoose,
launched from the White House in November 1961. I have inserted ""
before blockade to be sure there is no confusion. The trade embargo or
blockade was established months earlier, in February, in compliance with a
recommendation of CIA operative General Edward G. Lansdale, the head of
implementing Operation Mongoose which had the goal of overthrowing the Cuban
Government precisely in October 1962. Of course the American people were
not informed about Operation Mongoose until 1975.
Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins

====
guardian.co.uk logo

* News
* The Guardian

From the archive: October 24 1962
US blockades Cuba today

* Richard Scott
* The Guardian,
* Friday October 24 2008

The US secretary of defence, Mr Robert McNamara, said in Washington last
night that armed boarding parties would be ready to search about 25 Russian
cargo ships moving towards Cuba when the US partial blockade of Cuba
comes into effect at 3 p.m. (BST) today. The proclamation giving effect to
the blockade was signed by President Kennedy last night.

At a press conference in the Defence Department, Mr McNamara said he had
ordered that all Navy and Marine personnel should be held on active duty for
as much as a year beyond the expiration of their normal tours.

Washington sources said that the first Russian ship to be intercepted might
be the Polotavia, apparently designed to carry missiles. Reconnaissance
planes had taken photographs of the vessel, which was unescorted, and the
Navy was keeping a special watch for her. Developments in the crisis
yesterday were:

Russia cancelled all military leave yesterday after the Soviet Government
had issued a harshly worded reply to President Kennedy. The Russians said
that America was playing with fire and added that a most powerful
retaliatory blow would follow if "the aggressors" touched off war. Other
members of the Communist block have ordered military preparedness.

Dr Fidel Castro issued a mobilisation order to Cuba's armed forces shortly
before Mr Kennedy's speech on Monday night. A communiqué said hundreds of
thousands of men were mobilised in a matter of hours.

The Security Council met last night to discuss the crisis. Mr Zorin, Russian
president of the council, presented a draft resolution asking the Council to
"insist" that the US revoke its blockade decision. The resolution
called for talks between Russia, Cuba and the US, with the purpose of
"normalising the situation and removing the threat of war."

Britain, in a Foreign Office statement, accused Russia of "deception and
deliberately opening up a new instability by placing offensive arms in
Cuba." A curfew has been imposed on the British garrison in Berlin, which is
taking "precautionary measures."

Prices in the London Stock Exchange suffered a further sharp setback.
Britain behind Kennedy

The British Government accepts the new information disclosed by President
Kennedy concerning the missiles and considers that it radically alters the
situation. The somewhat critical attitude of the British Government towards
the recent American handling of the Cuban question has shifted to
sympathetic understanding for the new, more drastic action announced by
President Kennedy yesterday.

* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008