October 22, 1962. US President John F Kennedy deploys a fleet
of warships to Cuba. To intercept Soviet cargo ships, which are
already on the way… ...transporting nuclear missiles to the island. Kennedy strategically called the impending
showdown: KENNEDY: “a strict quarantine of all offensive
military equipment.” What it really was, was a blockade – which
is an act of aggression. One wrong move on either side would trigger
an all out nuclear war. And it all started here, a week earlier. With an aerial photograph that doesn’t seem
to show much… ...unless you’re looking for something specific. Pretty much immediately following the allied
victory in World War II, the United States and Soviet Union became bitter enemies… ...kicking off a decades-long struggle for
global influence known as the “Cold War”. Espionage and intelligence were at the center
of this conflict, most crucially surrounding the mutual buildup of nuclear arsenals capable
of unprecedented levels of destruction. But the US initially had a hard time keeping
track of their nemesis. The Soviet Union was notoriously secretive,
and hid itself – and its actions – from the world. CHURCHILL An iron curtain has descended across
the continent. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia intends to
do in the immediate future. Then-US President Dwight D Eisenhower saw
a solution that built on experimental intelligence gathering from World War II: Aerial photo analysis. In the late 1950s, the new high-altitude U-2
spy plane took photo reconnaissance to the next level. It was equipped with a powerful camera and
could fly at a staggering height of 70,000 feet… ...or, roughly 13 miles above Earth’s surface. “These cameras are described as capable
of spotting a golf ball on a putting-green from 40,000 feet.” In 1961, Eisenhower authorized the creation
of a new surveillance arm of the CIA: the National Photographic Interpretation Center,
or NPIC. This small team of photo interpreters was
trained in photogrammetry... ...the science of determining measurements
from photographs. Using this method, an expert photo interpreter
could identify specific equipment hidden in the tiny details of photographs… ...and recognize signs of nuclear missile site
construction. So what’s all this got to do with Cuba? After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961,
where the US attempted to overthrow Cuba's communist government, ties between the Soviet
Union and Cuba strengthened. The US worried that the Soviets might use
Cuba as a nuclear missile base. If so, they would suddenly have the Western
Hemisphere within range of nuclear weapons. The CIA began flying U-2 missions over Cuba
and bringing the imagery to the NPIC, whose photo interpreters pored over every detail,
searching for evidence of Soviet presence on the island. It was like looking for a needle in a mile-long
haystack – that’s how much film a single U-2 mission yields, covering huge amounts
of land. But on October 15th, 1962, Dino Brugioni,
a senior photo interpreter, found something. This photo proved, beyond doubt, that the
Soviets were building nuclear missile sites in Cuba. Brugioni identified military tents and trucks,
arranged in known-Soviet patterns. Launcher equipment. And, most critically, missile transport trailers
measuring 65 feet in length. Which, when compared to a photo taken in Moscow,
made it a perfect match for the Soviet SS-4… ...which had a range of 1,100 nautical miles,
meaning American cities as far as Washington, DC would be in reach. When the NPIC briefed Kennedy on what they’d
found, the president ordered a scaling up of U-2 missions to photograph and analyze
all of Cuba. Photo analysts updated Kennedy daily and in
secret on their progress, which gave him time to decide how to confront the Soviet Union. Given the evidence, Kennedy was strongly advised
to launch air strikes against the missile sites and invade Cuba. But he took a more measured approach with
his – KENNEDY: “strict quarantine of all offensive
military equipment.” Which kicked off 6 intense days between the
US and the Soviet Union, with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev calling Kennedy’s move
“an act of aggression that pushes mankind to the abyss of world nuclear missile war.” ARCHIVE: Round the clock processing of their
film shows that work on the missile sites is being accelerated. The damning photos were revealed to allies
at the United Nations, as the US military rapidly mobilized and was placed on high alert,
and Cuba prepared for another invasion. But when Soviet freighters reached the quarantine
line…. ARCHIVE: A Soviet-chartered vessel Amaruchla
is stopped, boarded, and inspected, then cleared to proceed to Cuba. Apparently the Soviet vessels loaded with
offensive weapons have turned back. A few days later, Kennedy received a message
from Kruschev. The Soviet Union had agreed to withdraw from
Cuba in exchange for the US removing missiles it had placed in Turkey and Italy. So, the nuclear missile sites were dismantled
and the Soviets left. Transporting their nuclear missiles with them
back across the Iron Curtain. In a personal thank you letter to the NPIC,
Kennedy emphasized the importance of the “analysis and interpretation of the Cuban photography”
in advising the US’s response in what is now called the Cuban Missile Crisis. ARCHIVE: In summary: the Soviet Union did
embark upon a bold venture to establish clandestinely in the Western Hemisphere a major offensive
weapons base. ARCHIVE: That they were deterred in this effort
is in large part attributable to the type of reconnaissance photography that we have
just reviewed.
