The Fourteenth Day: JFK & the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Source Archive: National Security Files, box 47, John F. Kennedy Library.

Source Archive: National Security Files, box 47, John F. Kennedy Library.

Source Archive: National Security Files, box 47, John F. Kennedy Library.

Source Archive: National Security Files, box 47, John F. Kennedy Library.

In this November 29, 1962, discussion, Kennedy thinks through the costs and benefits of allowing Soviet combat troops and their sophisticated weaponry, including short-range, nuclear-capable FROG rockets to stay in Cuba.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

Scan of the original report by CIA official Richard Lehman on CIA handling of the Soviet build-up in Cuba.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

In this clip from the JFK tapes, Kennedy instructs the ExComm not to talk to reporters. Only two people were authorized to do so: McGeorge Bundy and Ted Sorensen.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

November 1962 » Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara briefing the press at the Pentagon on the recent Cuban crisis. Color | Silent.

After Khrushchev backed down on October 28, one of the major issues that dominated the next few weeks was the presence of the IL-28 jet bombers. The bombers were old and, by the standards of the day, slow. But they were capable of carrying nuclear gravity bombs, and the southeastern corner of the continental United […]

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

In this Oval Office meeting on the 14th day (October 29, 1962) just before lunch, Marine Corps Commandant General David Shoup and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral George Anderson gave Kennedy a sense of what an invasion of Cuba might look like. There were still a lot of unknowns, they said, and they advocated for […]

In this excerpt from the JFK tapes, Kennedy complains about not being able to trust the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin.

Video from Universal Newsreel report on the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis as the Soviets send Vasily Kuznetsov to lead their negotiating team.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

This is a 5-minute compilation of Universal Newsreel footage from the Cuban Missile Crisis. It can serve as a quick introduction to how the Cuban Missile Crisis played in the American news.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

An October 25, 1962, Universal News report on developments during the early stages of the public phase of the Cuban Missile Crisis and implementation of the U.S. naval quarantine of Cuba.

CIA reports on the location of Soviet ships a day after the Cuba quarantine went into effect during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

  Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.

October 22, 1962 » Universal News report on President Kennedy’s televised speech in which he revealed the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba and announced that he was ordering a naval quarantine of Cuba.

Below are the pages from Attorney-General Robert Kennedy’s appointments diary for the period October 11 to December 31, 1962, spanning the Cuban Missile Crisis and its aftermath. Of particular note are the entries indicating his meetings with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, a secret “back channel” that came be very important in the resolution of the […]

In this brief report on Cuba for the Special Group, the CIA reported that Germany was about to bar the three West German ships under charter to the Soviet bloc from being used for trade with Cuba. It also noted Richard Nixon’s calls for stronger action (ie. a naval blockade) on Cuba and George Smathers’ […]

This one-page report on Cuba prepared for the Special Group contained only three brief items. Significantly, American signals intelligence had picked up the first radar signals believed to come from the SAM site at Mariel. “We take this to mean that if the site is not already operational, it soon will be,” the report said. […]

In this report for the Special Group, the CIA reported that communications intercepts had revealed two more Soviet passenger vessels enroute to Cuba. That caused an increase in the estimate of Soviet technicians in Cuba to 4,200. Other items related to British Guiana reaching an arrangement with Cuba on sugar works, signals intelligence indications of […]

During a news conference the previous day, President Kennedy had repeated the administration’s finding that the military buildup in Cuba did not currently constitute a serious threat. But he also issued a blunt warning that if that changed, “then this country will do whatever must be done to protect its own security and that of […]

The CIA reported to the Special Group that the flow of Soviet shipments to Cuba was not letting up and that the tally of Soviet dry cargo vessels reaching Cuba since the end of July had climbed to eighty and was rising steadily. Analysts also concluded that recent news reports on the numbers of Soviet […]

This CIA report on Cuba to the Special Group focused mostly on internal Cuban developments and Latin American foreign relations.   Source Archive: National Security Files, box 46, John F. Kennedy Library.