SATURDAY OCTOBER 27, 1962

4:57 PM (Local Time), the Caribbean Sea

The heat was stifling. In the dim emergency lighting aboard B-59, Valentin Grigorievich Savitsky, commander of the Soviet attack submarine was sweating... and emotional. The B-59 had sailed from Murmansk on October 1 along with her sisters the B-4, B-36 and B-130 with a destination of Mariel Bay in Cuba.

The quartet of subs were armed with nuclear-tipped torpedoes and had orders to establish a secret submarine base on the Caribbean island, just 90 miles south of the U.S. Less than an hour earlier, an American destroyer, the USS Beale, had detected the B-59 as it neared Cuba. The Beale, in keeping with U.S. Navy protocol, began dropping "practice" depth charges and pinging with active radar to communicate with the Soviet submarine, which was violating the quarantine placed around Cuba by President John F. Kennedy after offensive missile emplacements were found to be under construction across the island.

The Beale was soon joined by a second destroyer, the USS Cony. With the submarine refusing to respond to the practice depth charges and pinging, the Cony began dropping hand grenades into the water.

Aboard the B-59, as the grenades exploded above, Captain Savitsky summoned his weapons officer. "Maybe the war has already started up there, while we are doing summersaults here!" he shouted as the sweat poured off him. He grabbed a table as the sub was jolted by another explosion. Thermometers on the bridge showed the temperature had reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). Savitsky felt light-headed from the heat and stink. "We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all—we will not disgrace our Navy!”

Second Captain Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov suddenly felt cold despite the incredible heat. "Captain!" he shouted, "we have no orders to fire on the Americans!"

Savitsky glared at Arkhipov. "Our orders upon leaving Murmansk were simple - we may fire at the captain's discretion. As we have not received orders to the contrary, and I am still captain, I am using that discretion." He turned to the weapons officer. "Fire!"

Aboard the Beale it was the executive officer who spotted the wake of the torpedo as it sped towards the destroyer. The captain screamed for evasive manuevers, but it was too late. At 40 knots, the torpedo rapidly closed the 300 yards distance and detonated on impacting the starboard side of the Beale, just aft of midship. The 15-kiloton warhead's explosion rent the evening sky, vaporizing the Beale and the Cony instantly. Below the surface, the shock wave buckled the hull of B-59 and the attack sub began a long, slow descent to the bottom of the Caribbean.

Twenty miles to the south the USS Enterprise, also on quarantine duty, spotted the mushroom cloud as it rose over the Caribbean and as the shock wave rocked the massive carrier, radioed CINCLANT to report the explosion.


5:37 PM (Eastern Time), the White House, Washington DC

The teletype rattled in the Cabinet Room where the 4pm meeting of the Executive Committee (ExComm) of the National Security Council was still underway. It had been a long meeting and an eventful day. First, photos had confirmed that five of the nuclear missile sites in Cuba appeared to be operational; then, around noon a U-2 had strayed off course and into Soviet airspace, causing both the U.S. and Soviet Union to scramble fighter aircraft. The U.S. F-102s had been armed with nuclear-tipped air-to-air missiles. Luckily the U-2 had returned to Alaska safely with no shots fired by either side. Then a U-2 piloted by Major Rudolph Anderson had failed to return from its mission of photographing the missile sites in Cuba, apparently shot down or crashed - neither option looked good at the moment.

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara rose from his seat, tore the sheet off the teletype and read it. He turned white then looked up to see all eyes upon him.

"What is it? They find Anderson's U-2?" asked President John F. Kennedy.

McNamara handed the sheet to General Maxwell Taylor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and collapsed into his seat. Taylor read it quickly, his lips thinning as he read the words on the page. He looked at the President and said simply, "Enterprise reports a nuclear detonation in the Caribbean."

Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson swore softly from his chair at the corner of the table. Most of the others joined McNamara in going pale and silent.

The President immediately responded with another question: "Ours... or theirs? And your answer better be theirs."

Taylor shook his head. "Theirs, definitely theirs. The detonation occurred at the last known position of the Beale and Cony, two Fletcher-class cans that were prosecuting a sub contact." He paused and rubbed his temples. "The sub must have fired a nuclear-tipped torpedo; neither the Beale or Cony had nukes on board. Both destroyers were likely vaporized and I doubt the sub survived the shock wave."

The Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, was shaking his head. "What the hell are they doing?" he asked softly. "Don't they know this will force us to respond in kind?"

Taylor dropped the page on the table, a look of scorn on his face. "Mr. President, we must respond." he said.

JFK looked at Taylor. The General swallowed and went on, "We know that at least five sites in Cuba are active. If the Soviets are escalating this, the entire southeast is now in range of those damn missiles. And god knows how many more of those damn subs are lurking out there."

The President took a deep breath, sighed, and said, "Take out the subs. Anything west of the quarantine line.... kill it on sight." He paused and pointed at Taylor. "No nuclear weapons, General. I am not escalating this any further. I mean it. It'll mean more than your job is some hotheaded pops off a nuke."

McNamara raised his head. "What about the missile sites?"

The President shook his head. "Not yet. We sit on that for now."

Taylor looked dubious, but said nothing as he stood and left the room to give the necessary orders.

JFK watched Taylor leave and then looked around the room. "Someone get me Dobrynin. Now!"


6:32 PM (Eastern Time), 2:32 AM Sunday (Moscow Time), The Kremlin, Moscow

Premier Nikita Khrushchev blearily grabbed the phone on the third ring. He was exhausted from dealing with the Cuban situation, and it showed. His aides had been pleading with him to get some sleep, but events had been moving too quickly and even now he was at his desk, surrounded by other Soviet officials, working.

"Yes?" he asked as he picked up. As he listened, his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. "You're sure? Kennedy himself told you this?"

He hung up and looked around his office. The Chief of the General Staff Matvei Zakharov saw the look on Khruschev's face and asked, "What is it?"

Khruschev, a deep frown on his face, replied, "That was Ambassador Dobrynin. Kennedy called him to the White House and reported that one of our submarines apparently used a nuclear torpedo on two U.S. destroyers."

Zakharov's face reddened. "How did this happen? The order to hold all nuclear weapons was sent out two days ago!"

Khruschev shook his head. "Perhaps the submarine has been submerged and hadn't received the update."

Zakarov looked at Vladimir Semichastny, the head of the KGB. "This is horrible," he said. The KGB man said nothing, only raising an eyebrow in response.

The phone rang again and Khruschev again answered it, listening intently. When he had hung up he looked at Zakharov. "The Americans have attacked submarine B-4. The captain managed to get off a distress call before they sunk him."

The Premier stood up and came around his desk. Zakharov shot to his feet and noted that everyone else in the room - except Semichastny - did the same. Semichastny also stood, but did so at a more leisurely pace.

Khruschev stared at the KGB Chairman briefly, then addressed Zakharov. Send an order to all our ships at sea. Any civilian vessel should immediately head for the nearest friendly port. All military vessels are hereby authorized to sink any American ship they find." He paused and then added, "Nuclear weapons are not to be used without express permission from my office."

Semichastny sidled up to Zakharov and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Now we will see whether Kennedy has the guts to see this through."

SATURDAY OCTOBER 27, 1962

8:57 PM (Eastern Time), the White House, Washington DC

President Kennedy was angry. "Khruschev's lost his damn mind!" he yelled as he waved the latest telex sheet. His brother Bobby stood behind him, looking out the window at the lights of Washington.

The telex had arrived moments before reporting that a freighter had been sunk. The ship had been outbound from New York, carrying autos destined for Calais and the European market. A Soviet submarine had put two torpedoes in her, sinking her in minutes, but not before the captain had sent out a distress call. Even worse, from an escalation standpoint, the ship had been east of the 60 degree quarantine line and far to the north of the original area of fighting - the conflict was widening.

"They're sinking civilian ships in the North Atlantic now!" JFK shouted as he threw the sheet to the floor.

General Taylor came into the Cabinet Room, holding several more telex sheets. "Sir, these have come in over the last fifteen minutes. We've sunk three Soviet attack subs, but the Essex has been hit. She's not sinking, but her rudder's jammed so she can only steam in circles."

Someone chuckled but stifled it as Kennedy glared around the room. "This is not a laughing matter," he said sternly, then grinned a little as he pictured the giant ship turning large circles in the Atlantic.

The phone rang and McNamara grabbed it. "Dobrynin," he said and handed the phone to the President.

"Mr. Ambassador, has your nation lost all sense of right and wrong?" Kennedy said angrily as he put the receiver to his ear.

"Mr. President, Premier Khruschev has instructed me to ask whether a state of war now exists between our two countries," Dobrynin replied.

Kennedy was momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered. "Inform the Chairman that if a state of war exists it was at the instigation of the Soviet Union. The United States does not wish to be at war with anyone, but we will defend ourselves from attack!"

An angry exchange between Kennedy and Dobrynin commenced, ending with neither side satisfied, though Kennedy has extracted a promise from Dobrynin to set up a direct line between himself and Khruschev before things get worse.

As Kennedy handed the phone back to McNamara to hang up, he pointed at Taylor. "Hit those SAM sites at dawn. If we're going to be at war, I want the ability to smash those nuclear missiles before they can be launched."

The President then orders a Civil Defense Emergency and spends the next hour talking with political leaders from around the country as the first reports of the nuclear explosion and subsequent sea battles begin to spread across the country.


SUNDAY OCTOBER 28, 1962

12:07 AM (Eastern Time), the White House, Washington DC

"That man is insane," JFK said quietly as he set the phone down, exhausted. For nearly an hour, he and Nikita Khruschev had battled over the phone. Both men had become extremely angry, with each convinced the other side had precipitated the actual fighting. In the few hours between Kennedy's talks with Dobrynin and Khruschev, the U.S. Navy had sunk more than 10 Soviet ships, while losing three of its own. In Central Europe, both NATO and Warsaw Pact forces were now at high alert and the small NATO contingent in Berlin, surrounded by Soviet troops, was preparing for a suicidal last-stand.

"Jack, you should probably try to get some rest," Bobby said.

The President looked at his brother, slumped in a chair in the Oval Office. "This is a hell of a thing, isn't it, Bobby?" he asked. Then he stretched and shook his head. "I can't sleep, much as it would help clear my head. The damn world could blow up while I was taking a nap. Wouldn't look too good in the papers, would it?" he said with a wry grin.

Bobby yawned and stretched himself. "Well, I will stick it out with you then. Have you thought about getting out of DC?"

JFK shook his head. "Not going to happen. I'm staying here for the duration."

Bobby knew better than to push his brother and so let the matter drop.

"You know what that son-of-a-bitch Khruschev told me?" the President asked in a tired voice.

"That he's sorry and he's going to dismantle the missiles tonight?" Bobby replied with a thin smile.

Jack chuckled without much humor. "No, that'd be too easy. He finally admitted that the Soviets have offensive missiles in Cuba, and oh by the way, they also have tactical nuclear weapons there too."

Bobby swore and sat up. "So what are you going to do?"

The President reached for the phone. "We're going to expand the airstrike, that's what we're going to do. It's become obvious they'd rather fight than remove the missiles, so we have to remove them ourselves."

Via phone Kennedy informed General Taylor that the Soviets had not only the IRBM and MRBM on Cuba but also tactical weapons. "I want you to have the Air Force hit every known installation, and the airfields too." The Soviets had placed nuclear-capable IL-28 bombers on the island. "And I want you to hit them before dawn. Use radar. We'll follow up with a daylight strike if necessary, but we need to take those out right now."

Taylor reminded the President that their best estimate was that they'd only get 90% of the offensive capabability. Kennedy nodded. "That's better than nothing, General."

After hanging up with Taylor, JFK placed another call. "Get me LeMay," he said.

General Curtis LeMay was the head of the Strategic Air Command - which controlled not only the bombers of the U.S. Air Force, but also the country's stockpile of ballistic missiles. Kennedy informed LeMay to prepare Strategic Integrated Operations Plan (SIOP) 63. The plan is a detailed list of targets covering not only the Soviet Union, but also China and the Warsaw Pact nations.

LeMay asks, "China, too?"

Kennedy's response: "No, let's take the Chinese targets out for now. I don't think Mao's going to side with the Soviets in this." He hung up and put his head in his hands for a moment, closing his eyes. He was utterly exhausted.

Bobby looked at his watch. "How long til the bombers go into Cuba?" he asked.

"Taylor says the first bombs will hit the ground in less than three hours. The planes are fueled and armed, they just need specific targeting and they're off."

"God help us if we don't get 'em all," Bobby said. His brother nodded and added, "God help us, even if we do get them all."



1:42 AM (Eastern Time), 9:42 AM (Moscow Time), the Kremlin, Moscow, USSR

A bleary-eyed Nikita Khruschev sat behind his desk, puffing on his cigarette. Across from him sat his protege Leonid Brezhnev beside KGB chief Vladimir Semichastny while arrayed around the office were other high-ranking members of the Politburo: the Chief of the General Staff General Matvei Zakharov, First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shelepin, Sergei Semenovich Biriuzov, the commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces and of course the Minister of Defence, Rodion Iakovlevich Malinovskii.

Khruschev, looking at Brezhnev, said, "Gentlemen, we're in a nearly untenable position. A first-strike on NATO or even on the United States itself, only invites our own destruction."

He was greeted by silence, though some of the men in the room wore looks of barely supressed shock and disbelief.

He continued, "Therefore, I am going to order our forces to stand down and will dismantle and recall all the offensive weapons in Cuba. It is simply not worth the risk of destroying the Rodina."

Brezhnev, Shelepin and Semichastny exchanged glances. Semichastny stood up. "I must protest this decision, Chairman. This would be a grievous embarassment for the Soviet Union."

Khruschev simply stared at the man a moment. Then he spoke, in a tired voice. "Vladimir, do you think I don't understand this? But is it not better to be alive and embarassed, than it is to be dead and reviled?"

Semichastny said in a cold voice, "I would prefer to be strong and if that involves dying for my country, so be it." With that he turned on his heel and left the office, but not before giving a significant look at Brezhnev.

Khruschev sighed. "Bah. The man is an imbecile. If he knew what I know, he would not speak of such horrors so easily." Khruschev didn't elaborate further and though Biriuzov suspected the Chairman was referring to the United States' superiority in nuclear warheads, he said nothing. The Commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces was certainly not going to mention that his force was effectively outgunned by the Americans by something on the order of at least five-to-one.


3:51 AM (Eastern Time), Remedios, Cuba

U.S. fighters and bombers entered Cuban airspace, with the first wave specifically hunting the surface-to-air (SAM) missile sites ringed around the ballistic missile installations. Though six U.S. planes were downed, within moments all the SAM sites at Remedios as well as the others at San Cristobal and Sagua la Grande, were out of action.

Next the American jets pounded the IRBM and MRBM sites themselves, the bombers protected by F-102s tangling with Cuban - and Soviet - MiG-17s. Brand-new SS-4 missile emplacements, capable of sending nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles to U.S. cities as far away as Washington DC and Cincinnati, Ohio were wiped out in a systematic manner by overwhelming U.S. force. Over the course of the next three hours, three more waves of American planes hit the known missile sites - by the time the third wave arrived as dawn began to rise over Cuba, the known sites were all virtually destroyed as were the hangars housing the IL-28 bombers.

As the fourth and final wave headed back to Florida just after 5am, they leave behind a swath of destroyed missile installations, not to mention many dead Cuban soldiers and Soviet technicians across the island. Unbeknownst to the U.S. pilots however, were the handful of missiles they missed, including several tactical weapons, four SS-4 missile and two of the launchers themselves.

In Havana, Fidel Castro reacted to the bombings with predictable fury and immediately ordered a full-scale assault on the United States base at Guantanamo Bay in the southeast of the country. His forces had been in place for months, simply awaiting the go-order. When that word was given, the Cuban Army launched a ferocious attack against the U.S. Marines guarding the Naval Base.

In Washington, Kennedy received the news of the great success of the air strikes with relief. The most immediate threat to the security of the U.S. had been removed - so he thought - and now he could settle down to the business of settling the war with Cuba and avoiding further confrontation with the Soviets. A long and sleepness night ended with Kennedy ordering that another direct call with Khruschev be set up as soon as it can be arranged.