Operation Ortsac
Operation Ortsac | |
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Part of the Cuban Missile Crisis | |
Location | Cuba |
Planned by | United States |
Objective | Invasion of Cuba |
Date | 1962 |
Outcome | Rejected |
Operation Ortsac was the code name for a possible invasion of Cuba planned by the United States military in 1962. The name was derived from then Cuban President Fidel Castro by spelling his surname backwards.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, upon discovery of SS-4 missiles being assembled in Cuba, the U.S. Government considered several options including a blockade (an act of war under international law, so it was called a "quarantine"), an airstrike, or a military strike against the Cuban missile positions.
The nuclear weapons supplied from the Soviet Union could be destroyed by a military strike with the help of substantial air raids before they were operational. The plans were rejected in favor of a blockade, as U.S. President John F. Kennedy was against a sneak attack.
It can be argued that an American attack could have resulted in the deaths of Soviet soldiers and lead to a retaliatory strike on the United States. Such moves would likely have resulted in World War III.
An airstrike would probably have failed to destroy in entirety all of the missiles, with many of the positions hidden to U-2 reconnaissance planes, and would also have failed to prevent Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev from sending further reinforcements to Cuba, making a full blown military strike deposing Castro necessary to prevent further missiles from being placed on Cuba.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians revealed that the medium-range missiles on Cuba were already almost fully operational at that time, and operational command of smaller, battlefield-tactical nuclear missiles also present had, incredibly, been given to field officers, though that authorization was quickly rescinded.
Order of battle
Cuban Invasion Force (Corps)
- 101st Airborne Division (Secure Jose Martí and San Antonio de los Baños Airfields)
- 82nd Airborne Division (Secure Mariel and Baracoa Airfields)
- 1st Marine Division (Secure beaches at Tarará)
- 2nd Marine Division (Secure beaches at Tarará)
See also
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- Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1903)
- Hay-Quesada Treaty
- Cuban–American Treaty of Relations (1934)
- Good Neighbor policy
- Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
- El Diálogo
- Cuba–United States Maritime Boundary Agreement
- Tripartite Accord (1988)
- Cuban thaw
- Spanish–American War
- Ostend Manifesto
- USS Maine
- Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine (Havana)
- United States Senate Committee on Cuban Relations
- The Paquete Habana
- Army of Cuban Occupation Medal
- Propaganda
- United States Military Government in Cuba
- Second Occupation of Cuba
- Cuban Pacification Medal (Army)
- Banana Wars
- Cuban Revolution
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Jamaican political conflict
- United States invasion of Grenada
- United States embargo against Cuba
- Cubana de Aviación Flight 493
- Matthew Edward Duke
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino
- Zemel v. Rusk
- Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings
- Leyla Express and Johnny Express incidents
- Mariel boatlift
- Sandy Pollack
- Regan v. Wald
- 1994 Cuban rafter crisis
- Bill Gaede
- 1996 shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue aircraft
- Cuban Five
- Elián González
- Ana Montes
- Carlos Alvarez
- Elsa Alvarez
- Kendall Myers
- Alan Gross
- Havana syndrome
- American fugitives in Cuba
- Assassination attempts on Fidel Castro
- Americans in Cuba
- Cuban Americans
- Cuban–American lobby
- Guantánamo Bay
- 1999 Baltimore Orioles–Cuba national baseball team exhibition series
- Alpha 66
- Antonio Maceo Brigade
- Brothers to the Rescue
- Balseros
- Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
- Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus
- Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations
- Cuban American National Foundation
- Cuban dissident movement
- Cuban Liberty Council
- CubaOne Foundation
- Cuban Power
- Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil
- Engage Cuba
- Fair Play for Cuba Committee
- Friends of Democratic Cuba
- Havana Jam
- Omega 7
- Radio Free Dixie
- Radio y Televisión Martí
- US-Cuba Democracy PAC
- Varela Project
- Venceremos Brigade
- ZunZuneo
- Cuban football players who defected to the United States
- Filibuster (military)
- NOAAS Oregon II (R 332)
- Silver certificate
- Troika of tyranny
- Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame
- Boquerón, Cuba
- Straits of Florida
- Third Border Initiative
- State Sponsors of Terrorism
- United States and state-sponsored terrorism
- Cuba–OAS relations
- Overthrow
- The Cuba Wars
- Balseros
- 638 Ways to Kill Castro
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