DAY 8 OF 13 DAY CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS 51 YEARS AGO TODAY!
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 51 years ago today, October 23, 1962, was the 8th day of what would be the 13 day Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world has come to nuclear war.
JFK Signs Quarantine Proclamation
The resolution was passed earlier in the day by a vote of 19-0.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ambassador Adlai Stevenson made the case for the blockade.
Stevenson called Cuba...
Later, the White House received a letter from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in which he did not admit the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba or offer any concessions to the United States.
SOURCES
This is important, because his military advisers were favoring an armed invasion of Cuba by American forces.
Michael Dobbs writes:
"A week after the discovery of the Soviet missiles, CIA analysts were still unable to answer the president's most urgent question: where are the nuclear warheads?"
Dobbs continues....
"The Soviet nuclear arsenal...far exceeded the worst nightmares of anyone in Washington.
It included....(not only) the ballistic missiles...but (also) an array of smaller weapons that could wipe out an invading army..."
*note: 1 megaton - 1 million tons of TNT, 1 kilaton - 1000 tons of TNT
Soviet R-12 Nuclear Missile
SOURCE
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
At 7 p.m., President John F. Kennedy signed Proclamation 3504 authorizing a naval quarantine of Cuba to take effect at 10 a.m.,October 24.
Michael Dobbs writes...
"The flashbulbs popped in the Oval Office as Kennedy signed the two-page proclamation authorizing the U.S. Navy to intercept and if necessary 'to take into custody,' Soviet ships bound for Cuba with 'offensive weapons.'
He wrote his full name--John Fitzgerald Kennedy--with a smooth flourish.
Seated behind the Resolute desk...he was the image of presidential determination. But that was not how he felt. He had been questioning his advisers all day about what would happen when U.S. warships came head to head with Soviet vessels, and was disturbed by the thought of everything that could go wrong."
JFK had announced both the presence of the Soviet missiles in Cuba, as well as his decision to set up a naval blockade of the island, in a nationally televised address to the Nation the previous evening.
JFK Signs Quarantine Proclamation
October 23, 1962
Photo by Abbie Rowe
JFK Library Image
JFK waited to sign the proclamation until the Organization of American States approved a resolution to "individually or collectively impose the quarantine of Cuba."
The resolution was passed earlier in the day by a vote of 19-0.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ambassador Adlai Stevenson made the case for the blockade.
Stevenson called Cuba...
"an accomplice in the communist enterprise of world domination."
Later, the White House received a letter from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in which he did not admit the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba or offer any concessions to the United States.
SOURCES
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
"TWE Remembers: The OAS Endorses a Quarantine of Cuba (Cuban Missile Crisis, Day 8)," by James M. Lindsay, www.blogs.cfr.org.
JFK WANTED TO KNOW: ARE THESE MISSILES IN CUBA ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS?
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) While JFK was considering the best course of action in the Missile Crisis, the Central Intelligence Agency could NOT tell him for certain that the Soviet missiles were armed with nuclear warheads.
This is important, because his military advisers were favoring an armed invasion of Cuba by American forces.
Michael Dobbs writes:
"A week after the discovery of the Soviet missiles, CIA analysts were still unable to answer the president's most urgent question: where are the nuclear warheads?"
Dobbs continues....
"The Soviet nuclear arsenal...far exceeded the worst nightmares of anyone in Washington.
It included....(not only) the ballistic missiles...but (also) an array of smaller weapons that could wipe out an invading army..."
Following is a list of weapons the Soviets had placed in Cuba:
36 one megaton for medium range R-12 missiles
36 fourteen kilaton for cruise missiles
12 two kilaton for Lunas
6 twelve kilaton for IL28s
*note: 1 megaton - 1 million tons of TNT, 1 kilaton - 1000 tons of TNT
the a-bomb dropped on Hiroshima = 15 kilatons
Soviet R-12 Nuclear Missile
Red Square, Moscow, USSR
CIA Photo
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
