17. President Kennedy planned to use the Cuban Missile Crisis to escalate tensions in Berlin
After the President accepted the Soviet offer to withdraw the missiles in Cuba in exchange for an open promise not to invade the island and a secret promise to remove the Jupiter missiles from Turkey, Kennedy called former President Eisenhower. During the recorded conversation, Kennedy told the former president that he believed the Cuban setback would lead to a confrontation over Berlin by the end of November. Kennedy repeated his intentions to increase tensions over Berlin to former President Truman in a telephone conversation, reiterating the opportunity to further escalate tensions during which the United States would enjoy the full support of NATO. The president also ordered the naval quarantine continued for the time being. CIA plans to assassinate Castro continued.
As November wore on, US surveillance flights over Cuba revealed steady progress being made by the Soviets disassembling the missile sites. Under Soviet orders, the American flights were allowed to be made over Cuba unhindered by the Cuban defenses. Besides the offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, the Soviets had installed tactical nuclear defensive missiles, which were unknown to the Americans, and which the Soviets decided to remove as well, since the Cubans had displayed a tendency to act on their own accord in shooting at American aircraft, against Soviet orders, during the crisis. When Castro was informed of the decision in late November he protested against it, but to no avail. From that point Castro became a full vassal of the Soviet Union, unable to act independently.
