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Operation Ortsac

 

 
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Operation Ortsac
 
 
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Operation Ortsac was the project name of a possible invasion of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
 planned by the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 military in 1962. The codename was derived from former Cuban President Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
 by spelling his surname backward.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis

File:EXCOMM meeting, , 29 October 1962.jpgFile:Jupiter IRBM.jpgThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in the early 1960s during the Cold War....
, upon discovery of SS-4 missiles being assembled in Cuba, the US Government considered several options including a blockade, an airstrike, or a military strike against the Cuban missile positions.

The nuclear weapons supplied from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 could be destroyed by a military strike with the help of substantial air raids before they were operational.






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Operation Ortsac was the project name of a possible invasion of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
 planned by the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 military in 1962. The codename was derived from former Cuban President Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
 by spelling his surname backward.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis

File:EXCOMM meeting, , 29 October 1962.jpgFile:Jupiter IRBM.jpgThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in the early 1960s during the Cold War....
, upon discovery of SS-4 missiles being assembled in Cuba, the US Government considered several options including a blockade, an airstrike, or a military strike against the Cuban missile positions.

The nuclear weapons supplied from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 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
John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
 was against a sneak attack.

It can be argued that an American attack would have probably resulted in the deaths of Soviet soldiers and a retaliatory strike on another American position in the world such as West Berlin
West Berlin

West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945....
. Such moves would have possibly resulted in an all-out nuclear war
Nuclear warfare

Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare refers to the strategy for fighting or deterring military conflicts and terrorism when nuclear weapons are present....
 between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Also, a military strike would probably have failed to destroy an entirety of the missiles with many of the positions hidden to U-2
Lockheed U-2

The Lockheed Corporation U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, high-altitude aircraft flown by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency....
 reconnaissance planes. It would also fail to prevent Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Premier of the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1964....
 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 (rather amazingly) been given to field officers, though that authorization was quickly rescinded. An attack on these positions may well have resulted in the use of tactical nuclear weapons, for which some proportional response may well have been considered necessary.

Order of battle

Cuban Invasion Force (Corps)
  • US 101st Airborne Division (Secure Jose Martí and Los Banos Airfields)
  • US 82nd Airborne Division (Secure Mariel and Baracoa Airfields)
  • US 1st Marine Division (Secure Beaches at Tarará)
  • US 2nd Marine Division (Secure Beaches at Tarará)


See also

  • Bay of Pigs Invasion
    Bay of Pigs Invasion

    The Bay of Pigs Invasion, was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from U.S. government armed forces to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro....
  • Cuban Missile Crisis
    Cuban Missile Crisis

    File:EXCOMM meeting, , 29 October 1962.jpgFile:Jupiter IRBM.jpgThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in the early 1960s during the Cold War....
  • United States embargo against Cuba
    United States embargo against Cuba

    The United States Embargo against Cuba is a commercial, economic, and financial embargo imposed on the Fidel Castro on February 7, 1962. The embargo was enacted after the Castro government Expropriation the properties of United States citizens and corporations ....