Monday, October 29, 1962
OUR PLANET IS SAVED AS MISSILE CRISIS ENDS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) The planet has been teetering on the edge of nuclear abyss for the past thirteen days as the Soviet Union & United States faced off over a missile crisis in Cuba.
That crisis came to a successful end yesterday when Radio Moscow announced the Soviets were in the process of dismantling the nuclear missiles & preparing their return to the USSR.
With the pledge of the United States that an armed invasion would not be launched on Cuba, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that it was no longer necessary for his government to have the missiles there.*
*Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy wrote these words in a letter to Mr. Khrushchev after her husband's death:
"You & he were adversaries, but you were allied in a determination that the world would not be blown up. The danger which troubled (JFK) was that war might be started...by the...little men.
While big men know...self control & restraint, little men are...moved more by fear & pride..."
Michael Dobbs writes in the conclusion of his book on the crisis:
"The Cuban missile crisis demonstrates the sometimes pivotal role of personality...had someone else been president in October 1962, the outcome could have been different."
Ex Comm Meeting
White House Cabinet Room
October 29, 1962
Photo by Cecil Stoughton
JFK Library Image
Source
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro On the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
That crisis came to a successful end yesterday when Radio Moscow announced the Soviets were in the process of dismantling the nuclear missiles & preparing their return to the USSR.
With the pledge of the United States that an armed invasion would not be launched on Cuba, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that it was no longer necessary for his government to have the missiles there.*
*Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy wrote these words in a letter to Mr. Khrushchev after her husband's death:
"You & he were adversaries, but you were allied in a determination that the world would not be blown up. The danger which troubled (JFK) was that war might be started...by the...little men.
While big men know...self control & restraint, little men are...moved more by fear & pride..."
Michael Dobbs writes in the conclusion of his book on the crisis:
"The Cuban missile crisis demonstrates the sometimes pivotal role of personality...had someone else been president in October 1962, the outcome could have been different."
Ex Comm Meeting
White House Cabinet Room
October 29, 1962
Photo by Cecil Stoughton
JFK Library Image
Source
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro On the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
