War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with William Fairbourn, 1986
Description:
William Fairbourn was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps. In the interview he discusses his role during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and his views on the threat of nuclear weapons. He describes his deployment orders, which included taking his troops through the Panama Canal and being prepared to "land on the coast of Cuba, seize Santiago, and march on to Havana." Despite more recent speculation on whether the deployment of these troops was a decoy, he does not think that these speculations will ever be able to be proven, and describes the mood among his troops as serious and ready to defend their country. He describes the scope of the invasion force and states that their expectation was for moderate causalities - around 10% - but that he believed resistance would only last "maybe for a couple of days." His forces did not carry nuclear weapons on this mission, he says. Looking back, General Fairbourn believes that it was not just America's superior nuclear capability that made Khrushchev blink, but also the naval blockade and deployments of conventional forces. He concludes by saying that he did not believe the world was facing a massive war, but that in any event there was nothing he could do about the nuclear threat; he could only do his job to best of his ability and ensure the readiness of the conventional forces.
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