USSR and Cuba Sign Agreement on Soviet Military Assistance On September 2

USSR and Cuba Sign Agreement on Soviet Military Assistance On September 2
On September 2, 1962, Cuba and the USSR signed an agreement on Soviet
military assistance to Cuba
© RIA Novosti.
14:56 03/09/2014

OPINION: Russia 'Gets Back at Americans' by Reopening Soviet
Intelligence Center in Cuba
MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - On September 2, 1962, Cuba and the
USSR signed an agreement on Soviet military assistance to Cuba,
including the provision of heavy military equipment and a large number
of Soviet military personnel.
The personnel, numbering over 32,000, assisted in the training of Cuban
military officers. The agreement further strengthened ties between Cuba
and the USSR, which had earlier signed a number of agreements
facilitating cultural exchanges, economic assistance, and assistance in
the education of Cuban workers.
The existence of these personnel on the island would play a critical
role in escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet
Union in October 1962, when American generals proposed to bomb Cuba to
get rid of the Soviet nuclear missiles stationed there. This would have
put Soviet officers at risk, something Kennedy administration officials
feared could lead to the crisis escalating into a full-scale war.
Soviet military assistance to Cuba had begun at the end of 1960, when a
small number of Soviet military equipment; small parties had begun
arriving on the island. In September of 1962, the political directive of
the Soviet army and navy described the Soviet forces stationed in Cuba
as volunteers, 'ready to defend the young Cuban republic'.
The famous decision to send nuclear missiles to Cuba had been agreed
upon earlier, in June 1962, and was presented as a way of defending Cuba
from American military intervention, while simultaneously improving the
Soviet strategic position, given American nuclear superiority and the
presence of US nuclear missiles in Turkey.
With direct military conflict avoided and the return of Soviet missiles
to the Soviet Union, about one thousand officers and soldiers would
remain in Cuba after 1962 to continue to train the Cuban armed forces
and to create schools and institutes for this purpose. After 1963,
thousands of Cuban officers would begin to travel to the Soviet Union
for training.

Source: USSR and Cuba Sign Agreement on Soviet Military Assistance On
September 2 | Analysis & Opinion | RIA Novosti -
http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20140903/192595040/USSR-and-Cuba-Sign-Agreement-on-Soviet-Military-Assistance-On.html