Kennedy Announces Crisis: Cuban Missile Standoff
President Kennedy addressed the nation on live television at 7 p.m. on October 22, 1962, revealing the presence of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba and announcing a naval 'quarantine' of the island. He placed U.S. military forces at DEFCON 3, the highest peacetime alert level, with Strategic Air Command bombers armed and airborne around the clock. The speech was the first time most Americans learned how close they were to nuclear war. Over the next six days, Soviet ships approached the quarantine line and turned back. Secret negotiations between Kennedy and Khrushchev through intermediaries, including Robert Kennedy and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, produced a deal: the Soviets would remove missiles from Cuba, and the U.S. would secretly remove Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The crisis ended on October 28.
October 22, 1962
64 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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