Businessweek Archives  Apocalypse Then     Khrushchev, Castro,
and Kennedy, 1958-1964  By Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy
Naftali  Norton 420pp $27.50  For months, the Cubans had
expected an invasion. On four separate occasions in 1960 and
early '61, war scares shook the island. During one of these, in
October, 1960, Cuba mobilized thousands of soldiers to combat an
imminent U.S.-backed landing. Despite a lack of evidence, the
Soviets, who were then wooing Cuba, accepted the idea of a
looming invasion, too.  But no attack materialized. Elated,
Fidel Castro and his inner circle believed that Soviet threats
of retaliation had caused the U.S. to back down. In fact,
neither the KGB nor the Cuban security forces knew much at all
about U.S. plans. So when the true invasion came, on Apr. 15 at
Playa de Giron, the small Cuban garrison there was taken
completely by surprise. But President John F. Kennedy's
ambivalence about the operation and the fatal lack of air
support for the Cuban-exile invaders allowed the Castroi