Author Description

Surprisingly very little has been written about the military response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The author, a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, has obtained the declassification of many formerly top secret operations plans and command diaries of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units which, in less than a week, formed the core of a massive quarantine and planned invasion force that was larger than the Allied invasion force on D-Day. This paper traces the history of the United States' relationship with Cuba and our response to the discovery of nuclear missiles there targeted at our homeland. The naval planning for a Cuban contingency is analyzed through its actual implementation with the assistance of maps, intelligence reports, and troop deployments. The probable effect of the invasion plans on Soviet leaders and an assessment of the effects that the Crisis continues to have on US. policy toward Latin America are also discussed.