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Missile Crisis Begins
President Kennedy and principal foreign policy and national defense officials are briefed on the U-2 findings. Air strike and invasion, or a naval quarantine with the threat of further military action are two options on responding to the challenge. To avoid public concern, the president maintained his official schedule, meeting periodically with advisors to discuss the status of events in Cuba and possible strategies. -
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The 13 Days
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American Military Units Begin Moving to Bases in the Southeastern U.S.
Intelligence photos from another U-2 flight show additional sites. 16 to 32 missiles are also unveiled. -
President Kennedy Visited by Soviet Foreign Minister
Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Foreign Minister, asserts that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive and does not represent a threat to the United States. Kennedy, without revealing what he knows of the existence of the missiles, reads to Gromyko his public warning of September 4 that the "gravest consequences" would follow if significant Soviet offensive weapons were introduced into Cuba. -
Kennedy's Advisers Hold Down the Fort
President Kennedy is away for a scheduled campaign trip to Ohio and Illinois. Back in Washington, his advisers continue the debate over the necessary and appropriate course of action. -
Kennedy Returns to Washington
After five hours of discussion with top advisers, Kennedy decided on the quarantine. Plans for deploying naval units are drawn and work is begun on a speech to notify the American people. -
President Meets With Tactical Air Command Genral
General Walter Sweeney tells Kennedy that an air strike could not guarantee 100% destruction of the missiles. -
Kennedy Lets the Nation Know
Kennedy speaks on television, revealing the evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba and calling for their removal. He also announces the establishment of a naval quarantine around the island until the Soviet Union agrees to dismantle the missile sites and to make certain that no additional missiles are shipped to Cuba. -
President Kennedy Authorizes Naval Quarantine
The ships of the naval quarantine fleet move into place around Cuba. Soviet submarines threaten the quarantine by moving into the Caribbean area. After the Organization of American States endorsed the quarantine, President Kennedy asks Khrushchev to halt any Russian ships heading toward Cuba. The president's greatest concern is that a US Navy vessel would otherwise be forced to fire upon a Russian vessel, possibly igniting war between the superpowers. -
Russian Premier Khrushchev Replies to Kennedy
You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. "Consider what you are saying!...You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us." -
Kennedy Drafts Letter to Premier Khrushchev, Adlai Stevenson Lashes Out at Soviet Ambassador
Knowing that some missiles in Cuba were now operational, the president personally drafts a letter to Premier Khrushchev, again urging him to change the course of events. U.N. Secretary General U Thant calls for a cooling off period, which is rejected by Kennedy because it would leave the missiles in place. The normally courteous U.S. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson aggressively confronted Valerian Zorin with photographic evidence of the missiles in Cuba. -
President Kennedy and Khrushchev Come to an Agreement
In a private letter, Fidel Castro urges Nikita Khrushchev to initiate a nuclear first strike against the United States in the event of an American invasion of Cuba. The offer was, removal of the missiles in exchange for lifting the quarantine and a pledge that the U.S. will not invade Cuba. -
Second Letter From Moscow Demands Tougher Terms
The term was the removal of obsolete Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Overnight in Cuba, An American U-2 plane is shot down by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile and the pilot, Major Rudolph Anderson, is killed. Robert Kennedy meets secretly with Turkish Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and they reach an understanding: the Soviet Union will withdraw the missiles from Cuba under United Nations supervision in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba. U.S. will remove Jupiter Missiles. -
Cuban Missile Crisis Ends
The Soviet Union accepted the proposed solution and released the text of a Khrushchev letter affirming that the missiles will be removed in exchange for a non-invasion pledge from the United States.
