Instead of deploying long-range missiles to attack the United States, the Soviets had built hundreds of medium- and intermediate-range missiles to destroy the major cities of Western Europe. The strategy had been dictated, in large part, by necessity. Khrushchev’s boasts—that his factories were turning out 250 long-range missiles a year, that the Soviet Union had more missiles than it would ever need—were all a bluff. For years the Soviet missile program had been plagued with engineering and design problems.
