CUBA HAD N-WEAPONS DURING MISSILE CRISIS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992                   TAG: 9201140069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
CUBA HAD N-WEAPONS DURING MISSILE CRISIS
During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the Soviet Union secretly sent short-range nuclear weapons to Cuba and authorized their use against an American invading force, according to a top Soviet officer.
Gen. A.I. Gribkov, who was in Cuba at the time of the crisis, disclosed in a conference in Havana last week that the Soviets had given authority to the local commander in Cuba to fire the missiles in the event President Kennedy ordered an invasion.
"We came closer to nuclear war than anyone had ever imagined," said Philip Brenner, a professor at American University and one of a number of American scholars who took part in the closed-door conference of Soviet, American and Cuban actions during that momentous period.
Robert McNamara, Kennedy's defense secretary and a participant at the meeting, told his colleagues that Gribkov's disclosure had changed his assessment about how dangerous the missile crisis actually was, Brenner said. - Associated Press

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB