JFK RETURNS TO CAPITAL WITH ADVISERS DEADLOCKED ON CUBA
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On October 20, 1962, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara* reported to President John F. Kennedy that there were 6000 to 8000 Soviet troops in Cuba.
This number, provided by the CIA, was woefully inaccurate. According to Michael Dobbs, there were actually 40,000 Russian soldiers in Cuba.
To make matters worse, the President's advisers were deadlocked on what action to counsel JFK to take in response to Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba.
Things were going so badly on the 20th of October, President Kennedy had to make a sudden return to Washington from the campaign trail. The public was not permitted to know the real reason for his change in schedule.
Press Secretary Pierre Salinger said to the Press...
"The president has a cold..."
*Robert S. McNamara (1916-2009) was born in San Francisco & attended UC Berkely & Harvard Business School. RSM served in WWII & was president of Ford Motor Company (1960). He was Secretary of Defense under JFK & LBJ.
SOURCE
"One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev & Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War," by Michael Dobbs, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2008.
