19 Things We Should All Remember About the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

19 Things We Should All Remember About the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

Larry Holzwarth - October 9, 2018

19 Things We Should All Remember About the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962
Passport for Oleg Penkovsky, who supplied MI6 and American intelligence with valuable information regarding the organization of Soviet missile regiments and their capabilities. CIA

3. The United States had a Soviet double agent to help with the analysis of photographs

Oleg Penkovsky was a member of Soviet military intelligence (GRU) who provided information to US and UK intelligence on Soviet operations and intelligence organizations in the west. Although a former member of MI5, Peter Wright, later claimed that Penkovsky was in fact a Soviet plant, Wright’s claims were made in a semi-fictional work, and were self-serving (one MI6 official stated that Wright had been “economical with the truth”). What is known is that during the period when U-2 flights were suspended Penkovsky, code named HERO, provided US intelligence with the information that the Soviets were installing medium and intermediate range missiles in Cuba. A Soviet mole was aware that Penkovsky was sharing classified information in the west and in order to protect their mole the Soviet KGB moved slowly, building up a case to arrest HERO without revealing their mole (American National Security Agency employee Jack Dunlap).

Penkovsky was arrested on October 22, 1962, by KGB agents, and his fate was not revealed for many years, when it was determined he had been interrogated regarding the information provided to the Americans and British before being shot. Prior to his arrest he provided hard information regarding the types and capabilities of missiles being installed in Cuba, as well as the location of the sites, which allowed the U-2 flights to be directed more efficiently and the resulting photographs more readily analyzed and their contents identified. Oleg Penkovsky is one of many unknown heroes of the Cuban Missile Crisis, whose contributions to the successful resolution of the confrontation were kept secret at the time, and to most remain unrevealed by history.

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