CRISIS ENDS AS RADIO MOSCOW AIRS KHRUSHCHEV'S DECISION TO DISMANTLE MISSILES IN CUBA
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On Sunday, October 28, 1962, Radio Moscow* broadcast a message from Premier Nikita Khrushchev announcing the decision to dismantle Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba and return them to the USSR.
An announcer read these words...
"In order to eliminate...the conflict...the Soviet government...has given a new order to dismantle the weapons...and to crate and return them to the Soviet Union."
President John F. Kennedy, who learned of the decision as he was dressing for church, called it "statesmanlike."
JFK said to his aide, David Powers...
"Do you realize we had an air strike all arranged? Thank God it's over!"
*Radio Moscow (1929-1993) was the official international (shortwave) broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. RM broadcast in 70 languages from transmitters in the USSR, Eastern Europe & Cuba.
SOURCE
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
