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Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline
By - Jacob Gomez
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Oct 16, 1962
Oct. 19th
Oct. 17th
The thirteen dangerous days of the Cuban missile crisis began. Two option were an air strike and invasion, or a naval quarantine with the threat of military
President Kennedy is visited by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, who says Soviet aid to Cuba is not a threat to the United States. Kennedy reads him his public warning of Sept. 4
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Oct.
18th
Oct. 21st
Oct. 22nd
President Kennedy leaves for campaign trip to Ohio and Illinois. The advisers continue the debate over the course of action that should be taken.
The President meets with General Walter Sweeney who tells him that the air strike does not guarantee destruction of the missiles.
American military units began moving to bases in the South eastern U.S.
Oct.
20th
President Kennedy returns to Washington and decides on the quarantine. Plans are created for deploying naval units and a speech is made to tell the American people.
Oct. 23rd
Oct. 24th
The ships of the naval quarantine fleet move into place around Cuba and the soviet submarines threaten the quarantine by moving into the Caribbean. After the Organization of American States endorsed the quarantine, Kennedy asks Khrushchev to stop any Russian ships going towards Cuba.
Kennedy creates the Executive Committee of the National Security Council and tells them to meet daily during the crisis. Kennedy tells the cabinet and congressional leaders about the situation. Kennedy also tells the British Prime Minister about the situation over the phone. Kennedy speaks on television, revealing the evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba and calls for them to be removed.
The chairman Khrushchev replies to President Kennedy's October 23 letter and says, "You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding oneself in one's relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us."
Oct.
25th
The president personally writes a letter to Khrushchev urging him to change the course of events while soviet freighters head back to Europe. There was a lot of public debate between the United States and Soviet Union in the halls of the United Nations.
