John F. Kennedy: Report to the American People on the Soviet Arms Buildup in Cuba

John F. Kennedy’s presidency was a time of great dreams and grave crises. He was a superb public speaker who inspired the American people during the exhilarating and perilous events of the early 1960s. Aside from his lofty idealism, Kennedy spent much of his time in office confronting the perils of the Cold War, a global complication he was obliged to address in his Report to the American People on the Soviet Arms Buildup in Cuba, broadcast from the Oval Office in October 1962. Photographs taken by an American spy plane over Cuba, an island located less than one hundred miles from the United States, revealed the presence of Soviet missile installations under construction that could easily reach major U.S. cities. Kennedy assembled a team of advisers to determine the best course of action and prepare a range of military responses. Not wanting to risk a potential conflict that might result in the use of nuclear weapons by the United States and Soviet Union, Kennedy decided to impose a naval blockade, or “quarantine,” of Cuba, which precipitated the start of diplomatic exchanges between Soviet and American officials. These included letters sent by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who also sought a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Behind closed doors, both sides agreed to remove missiles located near their respective adversary’s borders, with the Soviets taking their missiles out of Cuba and the United States dismantling their missile sites in Turkey. Up to that point in history the crisis was the closest the world had come to nuclear war.