Please, can someone straighten up to me about these letters. Was the second letter fake? What was written in the second letter? That there will be no deal at all? Who wrote the second letter?
And the first letter? Was it really from Khruchev? Was that Russian spy really a Khruschev's war buddy?
I'm sorry if it was explained in the film, I did not understand the whole thing well.
The first letter that was sent was believed to be written by Khrushchev himself, as CIA director John McCone explained, was done by someone "under a great deal of stress" and bypassed the Politburo who would have filtered it more thoroughly. However, as Kennedy and his group were considering accepting the terms of the first letter to end the standoff, a 2nd letter was submitted by the Soviets which more or less seemed to make the first letter a ploy to buy time.
Kennedy and a few others decided one last round of diplomacy was in order, with the plan being to totally disregard the 2nd letter, agree to the terms of the first (to never invade Cuba), and also agree to withdraw the Jupiter missles from Turkey, but the deal was off if the Russians made this public, and had only 24 hours to accept...which of course, they did, as we are all still here.
As far as the spy goes, it is unclear for sure if he was Khrushchev's friend, or "war buddy" as they said in the film. There again, another ploy by the Russians to buy time. John Scali believed the intent was genuine and it was worth a try.
Just as there was division inside the Kennedy administration, there was probably division inside the Soviet government. The left hand didn't know what the right was doing, or found out what it was doing and attempted to present a harder line.
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