9. The Soviets accuse the United States of piracy
On October 24 the Soviet Union’s news agency and propaganda arm of the Soviet government, TASS, broadcast the content of a telegram sent by Nikita Kruschev in which the Soviet premier warned the United States against attempting to stop Soviet ships on the high seas, accusing Kennedy and the Americans of contemplating outright piracy. In another message, Kruschev wrote to Kennedy, “The Soviet government considers the violation of the freedom of navigation in international waters and air space to constitute an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear missile war”. Kruschev went on to warn the President, “To be sure, we will not remain mere observers of pirate actions by American ships in the open sea. We will then be forced on our part to take those measures we deem necessary and sufficient to defend our rights.”
As US Air Forces elevated their readiness posture to yet another higher level, with nuclear armed B-52 bombers on continuous airborne alert, a curious and little reported event occurred, or rather didn’t occur. The Soviets did not set a higher level of readiness. Soviet air patrols saw no increase in flights, air combat patrols remained at the levels where they were before the announcement of the quarantine, and no mass deployment of Soviet naval ships and submarines occurred. Nor was there any increase of activity by Soviet units in East Germany and Berlin. Despite the bluster of the Soviet premier to the American President, the Soviet forces remained in place, though some Soviet naval ships which had already been bound for Cuba continued on their course for the island.