Post by John Duncan on Sept 30, 2019 21:20:01 GMT -5
[/b]Kennedy Resisted Urgings to Invade Cuba, Tapes Say
BOSTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders privately urged President John F. Kennedy to invade Cuba at the outset of the Cuban missile crisis, newly released White House tapes show.
"We've got to take a chance somewhere, sometime, if we're going to retain our position as a great world power," Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, advised Kennedy as the world came to the brink of nuclear war in 1962.
Kennedy deflected Russell by reassuring him that troops were being massed for an invasion but would not be ready for at least a week.
Minutes later, the president went on television to announce a different tactic: a blockade against ships bound for Cuba with offensive weapons.
The president had learned only hours earlier that a U.S. airstrike would be less than 100 percent effective against the missiles and that a ground invasion could take months.
Four days later, on Oct. 26 -- after the United States secretly had pledged to remove NATO missiles in Turkey -- the Soviets agreed to remove any offensive weapons in Cuba, and the crisis was defused.
The tapes, released [in December 1994] after being kept secret for more than 32 years, cover two meetings held Oct. 22, 1962, about a week after aerial reconnaissance photos first revealed a Soviet medium-range missile site under construction in Cuba.
More than 500 tactical fighter planes already were massed in Florida by Oct. 22.
Kennedy had learned in a separate meeting with his National Security Council earlier the same day that some Cuban missiles could survive a U.S. airstrike and be used against American targets.
Kennedy shared this news with Russell and other congressional committee chairmen hours later. They insisted it was time to fight.
"Seems to me, we're either a first-class power or we're not," Russell said.
But Kennedy argued that the Soviets would not stand by as an American invasion force was built up with designs on Cuba. "We can't invade Cuba," Kennedy said. "It takes us some while to assemble our force to invade Cuba. That's one of the problems we've got."[/b]
BOSTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders privately urged President John F. Kennedy to invade Cuba at the outset of the Cuban missile crisis, newly released White House tapes show.
"We've got to take a chance somewhere, sometime, if we're going to retain our position as a great world power," Sen. Richard Russell, D-Ga., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, advised Kennedy as the world came to the brink of nuclear war in 1962.
Kennedy deflected Russell by reassuring him that troops were being massed for an invasion but would not be ready for at least a week.
Minutes later, the president went on television to announce a different tactic: a blockade against ships bound for Cuba with offensive weapons.
The president had learned only hours earlier that a U.S. airstrike would be less than 100 percent effective against the missiles and that a ground invasion could take months.
Four days later, on Oct. 26 -- after the United States secretly had pledged to remove NATO missiles in Turkey -- the Soviets agreed to remove any offensive weapons in Cuba, and the crisis was defused.
The tapes, released [in December 1994] after being kept secret for more than 32 years, cover two meetings held Oct. 22, 1962, about a week after aerial reconnaissance photos first revealed a Soviet medium-range missile site under construction in Cuba.
More than 500 tactical fighter planes already were massed in Florida by Oct. 22.
Kennedy had learned in a separate meeting with his National Security Council earlier the same day that some Cuban missiles could survive a U.S. airstrike and be used against American targets.
Kennedy shared this news with Russell and other congressional committee chairmen hours later. They insisted it was time to fight.
"Seems to me, we're either a first-class power or we're not," Russell said.
But Kennedy argued that the Soviets would not stand by as an American invasion force was built up with designs on Cuba. "We can't invade Cuba," Kennedy said. "It takes us some while to assemble our force to invade Cuba. That's one of the problems we've got."[/b]