13 Days, by Robert F. Kennedy: on War & Peace

USSR removes missiles from Cuba; US ends blockade & invasion

"Chairman Khrushchev agreed to remove from Cuba all weapons systems capable of offensive uses, to halt the further introduction of such weapons into Cuba, and to permit appropriate United Nations observation and supervision to insure the carrying out and continuation of these commitments. We on our part agreed that, once these adequate arrangements for verification we would remove our naval quarantine and give assurances against invasion of Cuba."

[OTI note: President Kennedy omitted from this public message that the United States agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey, which threatened the Soviet Union from a similar distance as Cuba was from the U.S.]

Defend vital interests while preventing nuclear holocaust

His objective was to force the missiles out of Cuba without war. That objective was accomplished. It was accomplished by a strategy which he helped shape and which his brother directed.

As a matter of fact, it was Robert Kennedy's suggestion, when we received two contradictory messages from Khrushchev, the first favorable and the second unfavorable, that we reply to the first and not the second. He drafted the reply; they were the terms on which the settlement ultimately was based.

Trading missiles in Cuba for Jupiters in Turkey is a threat

The fact was that the proposal the Russians made was not unreasonable and did not amount to a loss to the US or to our NATO allies. The Jupiter missiles in Turkey were obsolete, and our Polaris submarines in the Mediterranean would give Turkey far greater protection.

[But with the USSR demanding their removal], the President was angry. He obviously did not wish to order the withdrawal of the missiles from Turkey under threat from the Soviet Union. On the other hand, he did not want to involve the US and mankind in a catastrophic war. He pointed out that, to reasonable people, a trade of this kind might look like a very fair suggestion, that our position had become extremely valuable, and that it was our own fault.

Pressure the USSR without causing them public humiliation

This was shy he was so reluctant to stop and search a Russian ship; this was why he was so opposed to attacking the missile sites. The Russians, he felt, would have to react militarily to such actions on our part.

Thus the initial decision to impose a quarantine rather than to attack; our decision to board a non-Russian vessel first; these & many more were taken with a view to putting pressure on the Soviet Union but not causing public humiliation.

FactCheck: RFK hid truth of Cuban Missile Crisis until 1997

In fact, JFK accepted the "second unfavorable message," which would remove Soviet missiles in Cuba in exchange for removing US missiles in Turkey. RFK negotiated that secret deal with his Soviet counterpart; that deal remained secret until 1997. But because the book was written in 1969, and the secret kept for decades, our generation was taught that falsehood as political fact. OnTheIssues calls this "biggest lie perpetrated by the American government on the American people in the 20th century" with full details in our book review.