hospitals throughout the country to begin expecting large numbers of casualties. At this point in time U.S. reconnaissance planes were flying at treetop level over Cuba as a means of gathering in intelligence for an eventually amphibious landing of marines on the island.(Fursenko & Naftali p.238)Soviet and Cuban forces on the communist island also had begun preparing for war. Khrushchev gave the ok to his general in charge of military operations on the island, General Issa Pliyev, to prepare his troops for a possible invasion and to defend him in the advent of an American air strike. Cuban forces under Fidel Castro were also taking steps toward the possibility of war and a coming invasion. Castro already assumed an American invasion would come only days after the blockade was initiated and proved ineffective. Castro sent his brother Raul Castro to prepare defenses in western Cuba. In eastern Cuba he relied on his most trusted advisor outside his own brother, Che Gueverra to handle military operations there. Castro believed the American invasion was inevitable and saw no reason not to fire on any American reconnaissance planes that violated Cuban air space. Both states were indeed preparing for all out war.(Hinckle & William p.278-287) At this point in time, through the tenseness of the situation, Khrushchev offered a possible deal as a means to get out of this conflict while still saving face. Khrushchev’s deal involved and American pledge not to invade Cuba. As long as the United States was willing to publicly pledge not to invade Cuba, the Soviets would be willing to dismantle the weapons that the President’s administration deemed offensive. The deal was first mentioned as a possibility by a Soviet intelligence officer named Aleksandr Feklisov.(Schesinger p.7) Feklisov proposal seemed adequate enough to President Kennedy and the Ex Comm committee and did not require the United States to give much ground abroad...
