Alexander Alexeev was the Soviet ambassador to Cuba from 1962 to 1968. During the missile crisis Alexeev had privileged access to Castro as his chief Soviet confidant, which allowed Alexeev to relay information back to the Kremlin about Castro’s views and reactions as events unfolded. He was also in a position to caution Castro against any rash actions or provocations that could further aggravate the situation and lead to nuclear war. On October 27 Alexeev informed the Kremlin that Castro believed a U.S. strike was imminent and had urged the Soviet Union to strike first with nuclear weapons against America, a message that Khrushchev found very alarming, as it would mean the start of a thermonuclear world war.
Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center has created this site as a resource for the Cuban Missile Crisis. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, this site not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy.