On Oct. 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation on the immediate danger of a nuclear war. It is a timely lesson for today.
The Cuban Missile Crisis began during the summer and fall of 1962, coming to a head on Oct. 14 when U.S. U-2 aircraft took high-altitude pictures of Cuba, showing sites for medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) under construction.
President Kennedy immediately called a meeting of his closest advisors. He heard advice ranging from a “warning” to the Soviets, to an airstrike destroying the sites followed by a land invasion of Cuba. He wisely chose a middle path—a naval quarantine surrounding Cuba, and personal diplomatic efforts through letters between him and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Eventually, after several tension-filled days while the world held its breath, hoping that nuclear war could be averted, the Soviet IL–28 bombers were removed from Cuba, and the U.S., as promised, removed its Jupiter missiles from Turkey in April 1963.
Like President Abraham Lincoln, JFK was a true statesman, acting not from a standpoint of what his political party wanted, nor what was considered “popular” by the media, but instead in consideration of the long-term consequences of his actions on the general welfare, both for the people of that time and their posterity.
In his speech to the American people, he candidly told the population the status and danger of the situation, what the Soviets had done, and the actions that he had taken to secure the peace:
“Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful nation, which leads a worldwide alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further action is required—and it is under way; and these actions may only be the beginning. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth—but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced…
