Item COLD WAR 28/65 - Transcript of interview with diplomat Aleksandr Alekseyev, 1997

Typescript transcript of interview with Soviet Ambassador Aleksandr Ivanovich Alekseyev, Soviet Counsellor, Havana, Cuba, 1960-1962, and Ambassador to Cuba, 1962-1967, relating to the Soviet relationship with the Cuban government of President Fulgencio Batistá (y Zaldivar), 1954-1958; the Cuban revolution, 1956-Jan 1959; Alekseyev's opinion of Dr Fidel Castro (Ruz), Prime Minister of Cuba, and of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Argentinian communist revolutionary and Cuban Minister for Industries, [1959-1962]; the export of sugar from Cuba to the USSR, 1960; Castro's request for Soviet military aid, Apr 1960; Cuban fears of a US invasion of Cuba, 1960-1962; Operation MONGOOSE, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to destabilise Cuba and assassinate Castro, 1960; the Bay of Pigs incident, Cochinos Bay, Cuba, Apr 1961; the Soviet decision to deploy SS-4 'Sandal' Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBM) and SS-5 'Skean' Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM) to Cuba, 1962; Alekseyev's opinion of the decision by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, to deploy Soviet missiles in Cuba, 1962; the Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct 1962; the television broadcast by US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy to the US public announcing the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, 22 Oct 1962; the US naval blockade of Cuba, 1962; Soviet fears of a US invasion of Cuba, 27-28 Oct 1962; the Soviet decision to withdraw the missiles from Cuba and failure to consult Castro, Oct 1962. 49pp