Monitoring Cuban Missile Crisis as a U.S. spook in Tokyo

(First published on February 6, 2022)

Third in a four-part series

TOKYO — By far the most stressful time at Fuchu Air Base’s Elint Center was a two-week period in October 1962, during what became known as the Cuban missile crisis. I turned 20 during that time but, along with everyone else in the center, I seriously wondered if I would live to see another birthday. We fully expected a Soviet nuclear warhead to take out our facility.

On October 14 of that year, our U-2 spy plane flights over Cuba discovered that the Soviet Union had installed medium-range atomic missiles there, just 90 miles from Florida. The weapons were SS-4s, 22 meters long and carrying megaton warheads. Their presence placed large swaths of the United States within range of attack. A missile launched from Cuba could reach the White House in just 15 minutes.