According to one wonderful true and great read, the book "Spycatcher" by Peter Wright, former assistant director of Britain's MI5, banned in Britain, reviewed here and available here, the missiles in Cuba which were the factor in the Cuban Missile crisis were revealed to the West by a Soviet mole, Col. Oleg Penkovsky. He's the same guy who let the West know about the denunciation of Stalin by Kruschev.

The missiles were detected by a U2 overflight, but according to Wright the West was told where to look and what was there, including the type.

Wright believes that Penkovsky was a double agent, in reality planted by the Soviets, and given some material to establish his bona fides. The reason he gives for Penkovsky tipping the US was that the Soviets wanted to precipitate the crisis, and negotiate.

What the Soviets got was an assurance from the US that the US wouldn't invade Cuba if the missiles were removed. That's what they wanted. They could stand down a sizeable portion of their military then stationed in Cuba.

An aside is that if the US had invaded, it would have almost undoubtedly led to nuclear war. The US DIDN'T know the Soviets had tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba, UNDER LOCAL CONTROL. Had a US invasion fleet stood off-shore, any responsible Soviet commander would have HAD to use the nukes against that fleet. After all, the weapons were there for a reason. That reason.

And that would have been, as they say, that. Those of you who are less than 40 years old, or who have children, can pretty well be assured that if some other kinds of people had been President then that either they or their children would not have been born. There would have been a nuclear war. Not that everyone would have been killed, but there would have been a massive disruption of about everything.

Arf