Listening In (31 page)

READING COPY OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S TELEVISED ADDRESS, OCTOBER 22, 1962

CALL TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROSWELL GILPATRIC, OCTOBER 23, 1962

This telephone call gives as close a view as we are likely to get of how World War III could have started in October 1962. In his call to Assistant Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric, Kennedy envisions the way a U.S. naval vessel will stop a Russian ship attempting to penetrate the American quarantine of Cuba. The confrontation imagined here—and prepared for in detail—never happened, as both sides took care to minimize the risk of confrontation on the high seas.

JFK:
But as I understood, there was some report that the Russian ships were not going to stop. That we were going to have to sink them, in order to stop them. I thought that, or we were going to have to fire on them. I was wondering whether the instructions on how that’s to be done, or where they’re to be shot at, and so on, to cause the minimum of damage. And in addition, if they’re boarded, it’s very possible the Russians will fire at them as they board, and we’d have to fire back and have quite a slaughter. I would think we’d want two or three things. First, I think we’d want to have some control over cameras aboard these boats, so that we don’t have a lot of people shooting a lot of pictures, which in the press might be …

GILPATRIC:
Yeah, we’re gonna control all the picture taking.

JFK:
On the boats?

GILPATRIC:
Yeah.

JFK:
They all turn in their cameras. Secondly, I don’t know enough about the ships, but where they ought to fire and whether they ought to go through three or four steps, such as ask them to stop. If they don’t stop, asking them to have their crew come above deck so that they won’t be damaged, and three, so that we have this record made. Maybe you could talk to somebody about this?

GILPATRIC:
Yes. We’ve got instructions at CINCLANT
¹⁶
which start with those steps. Shot across the bow, shot through the rudder.

JFK:
Shot through the rudder.

GILPATRIC:
Then a boarding party and then order the crews to come on deck. And the minimum amount of force at each stage. Now, maybe we haven’t thought of everything, but we’ll take another look at it.

JFK:
OK, fine. How’d those photographic expeditions go this morning? Do you know?

GILPATRIC:
No incidents. They were back a couple of hours ago. We’ll see the pictures later.

JFK:
I see. You’re getting that one from me, aren’t you? Of those Florida bases?

GILPATRIC:
That’s right.

JFK:
OK. Have you taken a look at West Palm Beach?

GILPATRIC:
Yeah. The air force is doing that. We can look at all of the dispersal possibilities down there.

JFK:
OK, good.

GILPATRIC:
Did you decide anything about Nelson Rockefeller, or are you going to leave that?

JFK:
Wait a minute now. What about, do we know anything more about Nelson Rockefeller?

RFK:
[in background] We sent him a telegram.

JFK:
We sent him a telegram saying that I’d be in touch with him later. I thought we’d meet at six, but what my thought was that we’d bring down the Civil Defense Committee. If we bring down every governor, then it seems to me we’re kind of in the obligation to bring every congressman down to brief.

GILPATRIC:
No, he just wanted to have the Civil Defense Committee.

JFK:
Well then that’s what we’ll be in touch with him about, because I’m hoping Pittmann and Ed McDermott
¹⁷
will come today anyway.

GILPATRIC:
They will.

JFK:
Then we’ll send a wire from them to him and arrange that meeting.

GILPATRIC:
Do it right.

JFK:
OK, Ros.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY SIGNS PROCLAMATION 3504 AUTHORIZING A NAVAL QUARANTINE OF CUBA, OCTOBER 23, 1962

SIGNED PROCLAMATION 3504

PROCLAMATION 3504: INTERDICTION OF THE DELIVERY OF OFFENSIVE WEAPONS TO CUBA

CONVERSATION WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT F. KENNEDY, OCTOBER 23, 1962

This brief taped excerpt reveals some of the other stresses on President Kennedy during the crisis, from the ordinary pressures of public attendance at events, faced by all presidents, to the particular anxiety noted by Robert Kennedy—that a failure to respond to the Soviet threat would likely have resulted in impeachment proceedings in Congress.

RFK:
What was that?

JFK:
Oh Christ, about the dinner tonight.

RFK:
What?