JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2474
NUCLEAR MISSILE BASES IN CUBA ARE NEGOTIABLE?Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy received a letter from UN Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson fifty-five years ago today, October 17, 1962, asking him to speak to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev about the presence of nuclear missile bases in Cuba.
Mr. Stevenson wrote...
"(It) should (be) made...clear that the existence of the nuclear missile bases is negotiable. Because a (U.S.) attack would very likely result in Soviet reprisals...it is important that we have as much of the world with us as possible. To start...a nuclear war is bound to be divisive at best and the judgments of history seldom coincide with the tempers of the moment."
According to James M. Lindsay on "The Water's Edge," EXCOM met at 8:30 a.m. in the State Department on October 17, 1962. While the President did not attend this meeting, most of the participants believed Premier Khrushchev had put the missiles in Cuba to put pressure on our position in West Berlin.
JFK directed CIA Director John McCone, who attended the EXCOM meeting, to go to Gettysburg to brief former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to the JFK Library, United States military units began to move to bases in the Southeast after new photographs showed additional missile sites, along with 16 to 32 missiles, in Cuba.
The President observed the National Day of Prayer at St. Matthews Cathedral, had lunch with Crown Prince Hasan of Libya & made a political trip to Connecticut.
SOURCES
"The Kennedys: A Chronological History," by Harvey Rachlin, World Almanac, New York, 1986.
"Thirteen Days in October: Day 2, October 17", John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, www.microsites.jfklibrary.org/
"TWE Remembers: JFK Solicits Ike's Advisers, Cuban Missile Crisis Day 2," www.blogs.cfr.org
JFK directed CIA Director John McCone, who attended the EXCOM meeting, to go to Gettysburg to brief former President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to the JFK Library, United States military units began to move to bases in the Southeast after new photographs showed additional missile sites, along with 16 to 32 missiles, in Cuba.
The President observed the National Day of Prayer at St. Matthews Cathedral, had lunch with Crown Prince Hasan of Libya & made a political trip to Connecticut.
SOURCES
"The Kennedys: A Chronological History," by Harvey Rachlin, World Almanac, New York, 1986.
"Thirteen Days in October: Day 2, October 17", John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, www.microsites.jfklibrary.org/
"TWE Remembers: JFK Solicits Ike's Advisers, Cuban Missile Crisis Day 2," www.blogs.cfr.org
