A CUBAN DEFECTOR'S TALE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170084-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: June 1, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

S1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170084-4
A:it(;LE A~i'r.ir?I)
oPl FAG _
THE WASHINGTON POST
1 June 1980
,jack: Anderson
A Cuban Defector's Vale l~
There is disturbing evidence that the Soviets,
encouraged by Jimmy Carter's tepid leadership,
may be preparing another Cuban missile crisis
:.'
for the United States.
The appearance of Soviet missiles in Cuba in
1962 brought a nuclear showdown between Nikita.1
Khrushchev and -John F. Kennedy. Kennedy
faced down Khrushchev, who never recovered
from the loss of face. Now with Carter in the-
White House, the Kremlin czars apparently think
they can win a new Cuban confrontation.
Last year, . American intelligence experts,
after painstakingly putting together- bits and
pieces of evidence, informed the White House
that there was a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba. -
President Carter, with his eye on public o
ion polls showing that he was regarded as a
weak, ineffectual leader rushed off half-cocked-
and announced with chest-thumping bravado;:
that the presence of 2,600, Russian troops in
Cuba was "unacceptable." -
The Kremlin disdainfully dismissed Carter's
saber-rattling as empty rhetoric, and when the
Soviet combat brigade suddenly became "ac
ceptable," Soviet strategists were confirmed in-
their suspicion that Carter,was no tiger, but a
pussycat.
The president's humiliation over the Soviet bri-
gade issue was lost sight of by the American pub-
lie within a matter of weeks, swallowed up in the
greater crisis over the hostage seizure in Iran.
Now, less than a year after the combat brigade
fiasco, U.S. intelligence analysts have compiled
evidence that the Soviets are secretly developing:
a nuclear capability in Cuba-may, in, fact,. al-
ready have introduced nuclear. weapons into
their satellite outpost 90 miles from Florida:
The reason the American public has not
heard of this ominous development is that the
men in the intelligence agencies fear the disclo-
sure would touch off another international
crisis-one that Carter is ill-equipped to handle.
There is, of course, the possibility that the evi-
dence is misleading. But the Accumulation of
data from various sources points to a "worst-
case" projection that the Russians are'indeed?l
creating a nuclear arsenal in. Cuba-and worst
case scenarios are the only safe ones to assume
when dealing with the Kremlin. -
One of the most disturbing developments
was reported by a high-level Cuban defect-
or, who until recently.- .was 'being trained
by the Russians to command a SAM2 (surface-to-
air-missile)- site. He told his intelligence de-
briefers that. the Soviets have modified their
Cuban missiles by adding three booster rocket,
motors that increase their range threefold.
Intelligence sources told my associate Dale I
Van Atta the Cuban defector had been in-
formed that the purpose of the SAM2 modifica-
tion was to give it a surface-to-surface capabil.
ity. In other words, it can now be used for at- 1
tack as well as defense. The defector reported
that the modified SAiM2s in Cuba can reach tar-
gets in Florida.
What alarmed the intelligence experts even
more was the defector's report that he was told
the new. missiles' twin warheads were "very
powerful" and required. Soviet personnel to ac
tivate them. He was told the warheads are so 1
powerful, in fact, that they were to be deto-
nated only at maximum range.
The defector assumed from these hints that the
missile warheads were nuclear. What he didn't
know was that the Soviets had tested nuclear war-
heads of up to 25 kilotons on SAMMl2s as long ago as
1961, and that there are. SAM2s deployed in the
Soviet Union that are nuclear-armed.
Intelligence sources also noted that the Rus-
sians routinely describe their nuclear weapons
as simply "immensely powerful" to disguise
their nuclear reality from the troops who han-
them. So the defector's reports add up to the
dle
distinct possibility that Soviet nuclear missiles
are in position in Cuba at this very moment
Another recent development adds to the over-
all picture. In 1978, President Carter expressed
concern at the appearance of 20-odd Soviet
INIiG23s in Cuba. But intelligence experts deter-
mined that they were i`oZ,u an defense only. ,
What the American public was never told was
that the Russians can rewire a MiG23 to carry nu-
clear weapons in approximately two days. Fur-
thermore, the Soviets have constructed about 501
hardened shelters for the MiGs in Cuba-an unu- !
sual precaution for a- climate as mild as Cuba's.
Analysts suggest that the strong shelters are in.
tended to protect the MiG force from surveillance.
and/or attack by U.S. aircraft and missiles.
Perhaps the most alarming. evidence of Soviet;
military preparations in Cuba is the construe-
tion that has been taking place at Matanzas, not
far from Havana. Initially; the activity around
Matanzas was nearly dismissed as "suburban
construction." Butit now appears that what the
Soviets are building there is indeed an under- 'I
ground bunker and/or silo for surface-to-air +
missiles. With the known nuclear capability of !
Soviet SAM2s, and the threefold increase in the i
missiles' range reported,by the_Cuban defector, I
this adds up.to another Cuban missile crisis.. !
. Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170084-4