Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2013

 

The Kennedy Administration's Contingency Plans for War with Cuba

(Abstract)

 

Zhao Xuegong

 

During the Kennedy Administration, the United States not only adopted hostile political, economic and foreign policies toward Cuba, but also made a series of secret contingency war plans, attempting to replace the Cuban government with a regime acceptable to the US by means of a direct military attack. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, in addition to a stricter naval blockade against Cuba, the US government continued its preparations for the implementation of the emergency war plan and launched a large-scale military deployment. The hardliners, represented by the military, strongly advocated seizing the opportunity to carry out the established plan of air raids on and invasion of Cuba. Due to the many difficult political and military issues involved in the plan, plus the possibility that it could lead to a full-scale war with the Soviet Union, the top US decision-makers simply used military deployment as an important means of exerting pressure on the Soviet Union and Cuba and getting them to compromise. The contingency war plans clearly reflect the complexity of the US policy toward Cuba and the basic features of the Cold War.