In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces on October 22, 196 that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place. The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace.”
What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on October 15, 1962—the day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The next day, President Kennedy secretly convened an emergency meeting of his senior military, political, and diplomatic advisers to discuss the ominous development. The group became known as ExCom, short for Executive Committee. After rejecting a surgical air strike against the missile sites, ExCom decided on a naval quarantine and a demand that the bases be dismantled and missiles removed. On the night of October 22, Kennedy went on national television to announce his decision. During the next six days, the crisis escalated to a breaking point as the world tottered on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers.
READ MORE: Key Moments in the Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 23, the quarantine of Cuba began, but Kennedy decided to give Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev more time to consider the U.S. action by pulling the quarantine line back 500 miles. By October 24, Soviet ships en route to Cuba capable of carrying military cargoes appeared to have slowed down, altered, or reversed their course as they approached the quarantine, with the exception of one ship—the tanker Bucharest. At the request of more than 40 nonaligned nations, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant sent private appeals to Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging that their governments “refrain from any action that may aggravate the situation and bring with it the risk of war.” At the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. military forces went to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union.
On October 25, the aircraft carrier USS Essex and the destroyer USS Gearing attempted to intercept the Soviet tanker Bucharest as it crossed over the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. The Soviet ship failed to cooperate, but the U.S. Navy restrained itself from forcibly seizing the ship, deeming it unlikely that the tanker was carrying offensive weapons. On October 26, Kennedy learned that work on the missile bases was proceeding without interruption, and ExCom considered authorizing a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The same day, the Soviets transmitted a proposal for ending the crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.
The next day, however, Khrushchev upped the ante by publicly calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile bases in Turkey under pressure from Soviet military commanders. While Kennedy and his crisis advisers debated this dangerous turn in negotiations, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. To the dismay of the Pentagon, Kennedy forbid a military retaliation unless any more surveillance planes were fired upon over Cuba. To defuse the worsening crisis, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to dismantle the U.S. missile sites in Turkey but at a later date, in order to prevent the protest of Turkey, a key NATO member.
On October 28, Khrushchev announced his government’s intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba. With the airing of the public message on Radio Moscow, the USSR confirmed its willingness to proceed with the solution secretly proposed by the Americans the day before. In the afternoon, Soviet technicians began dismantling the missile sites, and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was effectively over. In November, Kennedy called off the blockade, and by the end of the year all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey.
The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed at the time a clear victory for the United States, but Cuba emerged from the episode with a much greater sense of security.The removal of antiquated Jupiter missiles from Turkey had no detrimental effect on U.S. nuclear strategy, but the Cuban Missile Crisis convinced a humiliated USSR to commence a massive nuclear buildup. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union reached nuclear parity with the United States and built intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking any city in the United States.
A succession of U.S. administrations honored Kennedy’s pledge not to invade Cuba, and relations with the communist island nation situated just 80 miles from Florida remained a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy for more than 50 years. In 2015, officials from both nations announced the formal normalization of relations between the U.S and Cuba, which included the easing of travel restrictions and the opening of embassies and diplomatic missions in both countries.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
The Eternal Flame
We are like a mote of dust floating in the morning sky
Tiny teardrop that the Angel of starlight cried.
Adorning a frosty Arlington hillock burns the Eternal Flame
Lit by the Archangel Gabriel in Heavenly Father’s Name.
Burning with love and undaunted courage
Defender against iron tyranny’s awful scourge.
Beneath this proud and mighty flame
Rest John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s mortal remains.
Bravely did he master the tiger of oppression’s ride
Becoming a martyred son of freedom’s pride.
With the devotion of an Angel’s chore
He sought an end to a perilous cold war.
Our Thirty Fifth President gave his life
So that the world might see a new birth of freedom’s light.
‘Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’
He passed the torch of liberty to a new generation.
He saw peace as our sacred responsibility
For without the dream of peace what is liberty?
Proud we are of our ancient heritage
Orphans of a touching celestial marriage
Where love eternal betrothed to mortal strife
In the falling tears of his lovely wife.
For in the depths of her loneliness
God’s hand reaches out to us in holiness.
As Eternal Flame burns proud and sure
We remember the promise of Camelot’s investiture
The President began anew the quest for peace
Before the dark powers of destruction could be unleashed.
For thirteen days in October of Sixty-Two
Humanity was trapped in annihilation’s final queue.
With love’s legacy the President stood strong
Opposing a desperate and warmongering throng.
And communicating with peace and grace
Began a dialogue with the descendants of Peter the Great.
With great courage, vigor and zest
The President wrote to Premier Khrushchev.
They spoke of the tribulation of a hard and bitter peace
And that life on Earth deserved a brand new lease.
Both understanding the ancient truth
‘That the wicked flee when no man persueth.’
And in the hearts of these two men
Was born a peace that only our better Angels tend.
Then the President did with loving apprehension
Say a prayer for our troubled Nation:
‘Oh thou God that heard Solomon in the Night
I cannot guide this Nation without thy light.’
Our President lost his very own life
Because he raised the torch of wisdom’s light.
And knowing he too had a rendezvous with death
Fought for peace until his very last breath.
On film it seemed as if all time froze
In awful cluster of bloody rose
And in the purifying furnace of affliction
Is wrought democracy’s beautiful benediction
As long as God’s light lives in our hearts
From freedom’s promised land we will never depart.
For under mortal strife’s mystical dominion
We gather in the sheaves of holy freedom.
And under fading shadow of Eagle feather
Let Mankind’s love burn together
To share an intimacy heaven sent
Softly kissing the blushing present.
For though Camelot’s dream is no more
Follow the tearful trail of her lost lore
And peace will don your gentle heart
Giving all mankind a brand new start.
In the name of the heavenly host
Bless your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Thank you Mr. President
Nice adult bedtime story.
JFK faked his death instead of sticking around for Vietnam, Civil Rights, Gun Control, Gold Standard, Watergate etc- which of course, would have been politically untenable.
It’s much easier to rule America when everyone thinks you’re dead and you can send pretend Presidents (starting with LBJ) to shake hands and do speeches.
https://tinyurl.com/lwcbfsv
I don’t think so my friend. You are suffering from a delusion. If one thing is clear about that day in November of 1963 it is that the President was killed. The question is who had him killed and why? it is also clear that Kennedy had turned against the warmongers in the Pentagon and the intelligence community. His commencement speech at American University was a real milestone presenting a vision of a better world one that was unacceptable to the avaricious warmongering corporations. Yet it is possible that a little known missing piece of history did him in. Kennedy had proposed a damn at Passamoquoddy bay in Maine. The purpose was to prove that the entire U.S. power grid could be energized by the tidal powers of the ocean. It was truly innovative and a real possibility. Naturally this would be bad news to Texas oilmen. Funny that Kennedy was killed in Texas that that LBJ was a Texan with strong links to Texas oilmen. But yes, sadly, JFK did die on that ill fated day and America changed direction almost immediately. As Donald Trump is learning you don’t try to take on the establishment.
https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-university-19630610
Pssst, it was the C_A.
Patton was right, we should have rearmed the Germans and rolled right into the Soviet positions.
The Cold War was an utter hoax.
Exhibit A.
The Pod people have taken over the brains of democrats and bent them into a hatred of America.
They will never again produce a man like JFK.
They MUST be defeated because they are the new communists.
God bless ol’ Jack. He surely had his flaws, but don’t we all. My mother loved him…to her it was the event where today the details are still so vivid and fresh.
The old engineer who came by to spec out my root cellar remembered being on US 50 heading E from Winchester, VA. A Secret Service agent had hit a cow in the middle of the road, no joke. When my engineer stopped, the guy was devastated and didn’t give a shit about his car.
Can’t make this shit up.