Thirteen Days

The President summoned Robert Kennedy to the White House and informed him that US Intelligence believed, based on photographic evidence, that Russia was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. This “was the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis—a confrontation between the two giant atomic nations, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.” (19).

In September, just a few weeks earlier, Robert Kennedy met with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and questioned him about reports of Soviet military shipments to Cuba and construction of a military base there. Dobrynin responded that Soviet Chairman Nikita Khrushchev had authorized him to communicate his “assurances” that there would be no “offensive weapons” in Cuba and that the Soviets would not do anything to “disrupt the relationship of our two countries during this period prior to the election” (21). Robert Kennedy’s reaction was “skepticism,” and when summarizing his meeting for the President, he advised the President to declare that the U.S. “would not tolerate the introduction of offensive surface-to-surface missiles, or offensive weapons of any kind, into Cuba” which the President did on September 4 (22). In response, the Soviets declared that they would not place missiles in Cuba.

Later that morning, President Kennedy convened a meeting of top aides, cabinet members and other government officials to advise him on the crisis.