War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Michel Tatu, 1986 [2]
Description:
Michel Tatu was a French journalist who served as Moscow correspondent for Le Monde from 1957-1964. In this interview he discusses the Soviet position, and especially Khrushchev's position, during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He assesses Khrushchev's reasoning behind his decision to put missiles in Cuba in order to level the playing field with the U.S., specifically choosing Cuba over Germany because President Kennedy had previously shown a tough stance on Berlin -- including sending tanks to confront Soviet forces -- but a milder position on Cuba after the Bay of Pigs. He relates the Soviet reaction to the U.S. blockade, and the discrepancies between Khrushchev's position and that of the Soviet Politburo, which is especially noticeable in some of the letters from Khrushchev to Kennedy. He describes the process of resolving the missile crisis -- centering around Khrushchev's recognition of Kennedy's determination and his concern about a possible U.S. invasion -- and the political consequences of the crisis, specifically for the USSR's standing among community countries, for Khrushchev's position in the Soviet leadership, and for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
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