"NO NEGOTIATION UNTIL SOVIET BASES INOPERATIVE"

JFK NIXES OFFER TO 'PULL OUT' MISSILES IN CUBA IF U.S. REMOVES ITS MISSILES IN TURKEY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) In a front-page bulletin published in the October 27, 1962 edition of The Evening Star, it is reported today that President John F. Kennedy has "shut the door" on any negotiations with the Soviet Union "over the Cuban crisis."

The President, after conferring with the National Security Council, will NOT negotiate "until work on the Soviet nuclear missile bases in Cuba stops and the missiles are made inoperable."

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had offered a deal via Radio Moscow to pull out his missiles providing the United States would remove its missiles from Turkey.

Mr. Khrushchev also proposed that the United Nations "act as an agent...to guarantee compliance in Cuba and Turkey."

In a related story, The Star reports "500 pickets...marched...in front of The White House this morning."  They included representatives of The Student Peace Union, Anti-Castro Cubans, and Young Americans For Freedom.

Signs were displayed reading...

Human Race or Arms Race, No More War, Glory to the U.S. Navy, Vivan Vivan Estados Unidos, Russkies Go Home, The Wall Is Next. Don't Chicken Out This Time, Jack, Invade Cuba...Bury Castro

JFK+50 NOTE

The sign reading "Don't Chicken Out This Time, Jack" was a reference to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961 when JFK ordered a second airstrike on Cuban targets cancelled.

SOURCES

"Five Hundred White House Pickets Split Sharply, but Parade," by David Braaten, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 27, 1962, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

"U.S. Rejects Khrushchev Offer Of Cuban-Turkish Bases Deal," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 27, 1962, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Khrushchev & Kennedy

Vienna, Austria

1961

uploaded by Joel Raupe

www.flickr.com/

"TOPIC IS BELIEVED TO BE CUBA"

PRESIDENT TO SPEAK TO NATION TONIGHT ON 'SUBJECT OF HIGHEST NATIONAL URGENCY'

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On October 22, 1962, The Evening Star reports that President John F. Kennedy "will speak to the Nation by television and radio at 7 p.m. tonight...on 'a subject of the highest national urgency'."

The Star says that the topic of the President's speech is "believed to be Cuba."

Mr. Kennedy has been and will be meeting with his top military and diplomatic advisers including the National Security Council, the cabinet and congressional leaders of both parties.

The Star reports about 40 United States Navy ships, 20,000 men and carrier-based aircraft have been "assembled...near Puerto Rico."

JFK+50 NOTE

Havana Radio called the military buildup by the Kennedy administration  in the Caribbean area "aggressive and provocative." 

SOURCES

"Cuban Radio Hits Buildup, Charges U.S. Provocation," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 22, 1962, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

"Kennedy Will Speak Tonight; 'Matter of Highest Urgency'," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 22, 1962, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ 

 

 

JFK Meets With Military Advisers

The White House

www.picryl.com

Wikimedia Commons

"CIA GIVING MILITARY TRAINING TO ANTI-CASTRO CUBAN EXILES"

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES  CUBA WITH JFK

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On January 28, 1961, President John F. Kennedy met with Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, CIA Director Allen Dulles*, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Cabinet Room in the West Wing of the White House. 

The focus of the meeting, which took place just 8 days after JFK's inauguration, was the situation in Cuba.   Mr. Dulles* reported that Cuba was a communist controlled state and that Fidel Castro was in the process of building up his military.  

Dulles also reported that there was increasing opposition to the Castro regime on the island and that the CIA was in the process of giving military training to anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

As the meeting ended, it was agreed that the Agency would continue its activities in regard to Cuba and the Department of Defense would review proposals for the active deployment of anti-Castro Cuban forces in Cuban territory.

*Allen Welsh Dulles (1893-1969) was born in Watertown, NY.  His older brother, John Foster Dulles, was Ike's Secretary of State.  AWD graduated from Princeton & became a diplomat.  He was chief adviser to NY Gov Thomas E. Dewey in his 1948 presidential campaign.

In 1953, Dulles became CIA Director, a position he held until Sept 1961 when JFK forced his resignation after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.  LBJ appointed Dulles to serve on the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

SOURCE

White House Document (declassified) issued by McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor

                         

NSC-68

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 1919

TRUMAN RECEIVES NSC-68 ON COLD WAR POLICY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Sixty-six years ago today, April 14, 1950, President Harry S Truman received a long awaited report from the National Security Council on the topic of American cold war policy.  The 58 page report, titled NSC-68, had been completed on April 7th.

Four months earlier, the President had requested a review of United States foreign policy by the council.  The report was not made public, however, until declassified in 1975.    

NSC-68 called on the government to pursue a policy of containment of communism.  This policy, which marked the administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan is known in history books as the Truman Doctrine.

The report advocated a large expansion of the military budget, development of the H-bomb and increased military aide to U.S. allies.  President Truman hesitated its approval, however, because it lacked specificity and called for excessive spending.  He sent the report back for revision and finally gave approval in 1951.

NSC-68 is described as "among the most influential documents composed by the U.S. government during the Cold War."

SOURCE

"NSC-68, 1950," Office of the Historian, www.history.state.gov/

PRESIDENT LINCOLN SHOT AT FORD'S THEATER

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) One hundred fifty-one years ago at 10:15 p.m. this evening, April 14, 1865, a single pistol shot was fired at President Abraham Lincoln as he was sitting in a rocking chair in a box above the stage at Ford's Theater here in the Nation's Capital.

Some witnesses said they saw a man, later identified as the actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth,  leap to the stage below the box shortly after the shot was fire and scramble out the rear of the theater.

One of the doctors attending Mr. Lincoln,  Dr. Charles A. Leale, was heard to say "the wound is mortal".  The bullet entered the back of the President's head.  Major Henry Rathbone, a guest in the President's box, was badly wounded in the arm as he grappled with the assassin.  

Not wanting to worsen Lincoln's condition any more than necessary, doctors ordered he be moved to the nearest bed. Mr. William Petersen, who runs a boardinghouse opposite Ford's on 10th Street, offered use of one of his rooms on the 1st floor.  Mrs. Mary Lincoln, in a frantic state, followed her husband into the boarding house.

The President was laid diagonally across the single bed in the room because it was too short for his 6'4" frame.  Dr. Leale was assisted by Dr. Charles Sabin Taft and Dr. Albert F. King who both were in the theater at the time of the shooting.

A hostile crowd gathered outside on 10th Street between the rooming house and Ford's.  Some called for the theater to be torched.

SOURCE

"Bloody Crimes:  The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant For Lincoln's Corpse," by James Swanson, William Morrow, 2010.

Ford's Theater

Photo by John White (2007)