Nikita Khrushchev
Soviet leader 1953–1964, presider over de-Stalinization and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Also known as: Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) succeeded Joseph Stalin as effective leader of the Soviet Union, holding power as First Secretary of the CPSU from 1953 until his removal in 1964. Quigley's narrative locates him at the center of the post-Stalin reform, the Sputnik moment, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 — the crisis that, in Quigley's reading, "stripped the Soviet-American rivalry down to its essential features" (T&H 1121).
Post-Stalin succession
Quigley dates the Khrushchev consolidation precisely: "the death of Stalin (March 5, 1953) and the accession to full power of Khrushchev (July 4, 1957 to March 27, 1958)" (T&H 891). The interregnum opened space for the moderate-Republican Eisenhower administration to attempt a more graduated nuclear-and-alliance posture before being overtaken by the Berlin and Cuban crises. Khrushchev's own position depended on the support of "the [security] services" — a debt Quigley says he owed "after Stalin's death in 1953 and again in June 1957, when he had been removed from office by the Soviet Presidium" before being restored (Book Reviews 83).
The Cuban missile crisis
The 1962 crisis is the climactic event of Khrushchev's tenure in Tragedy and Hope. Quigley reconstructs the timing through Khrushchev's "secret letter" to Kennedy on Friday, 26 October 1962, attributing the Soviet panic to "a double cause: His recognition of American missile superiority" combined with the breakdown of the operation in Cuba (Book Reviews 83). The placement of medium-range missiles "in Castro's Cuba" — and their subsequent withdrawal — Quigley reads as the Soviet defense strategy "moving in a direction opposite to that which was influencing American defense decisions" (T&H 1104). The crisis's resolution, with Castro "wild with anger at the way he had been brushed aside and finally sold out by the Kremlin" (T&H 1121), set the structural terms of the remaining The Cold War.
Cited in
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 891 Quigley
Stalin (March 5, 1953) and the accession to full power of Khrushchev (July 4, 1957 to March 27, 1958). The last two years were occupied by the Eisenhower administration's efforts to get back to a more workable defense policy.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 1104 Quigley
Secretly installing them in Castro's Cuba. This decision, if we have analyzed it correctly, showed once again the way in which the Soviet defense strategy moved in a direction opposite to that which was influencing American defense decisions.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 1121 Quigley
Inspection of the sites was prevented by Castro, who was wild with anger at the way he had been brushed aside and finally sold out by the Kremlin.
- book-reviews · p. 83 Quigley
Off for the support that these services had given him after Stalin's death in 1953 and again in June 1957, when he had been removed from office by the Soviet Presidium. Thus the panic, revealed in Khrushchev's 'secret letter' to Kennedy on Friday, October 26, 1962, was engendered by a double cause.