THE WHITE HOUSE RADIO-TV ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT TO THE NATION FROM THE WHITE HOUSE OCTOBER 22, 1962

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R001700130016-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2006
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: October 22, 1962
• Content Type: PREL

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, OCTOBER 22, 1962
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
RADIO-TV ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO THE NATION
FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
OCTOBER 22, 1962
(AS ACTUALLY DELIVERED)
Good evening, my fellow citizens:
This government, as promised, has maintained the
closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the
island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence
has established the fact that a series of offensive missile
sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The
purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a
nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere.
Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information
of this nature last Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m., I directed
that our surveillance be stepped up. And having now confirmed
and completed our evaluation of the evidence and our decision on
a course of action, this government feels obliged to report
this new crisis to you in fullest detail.
The characteristics of these new missile sites indi-
cate two distinct types of installations. Several of them in-
clude Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead for a distance of more than 1000 nautical miles.
Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking
Washington, D. C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City,
or any other city in the Southeastern part of the United States,
in Central America, or in the Caribbean area.
Additional sitesrot yet completed appear to be designed
for intermediate range ballistic missiles -- capable of traveling
more than twice as far -- and thus capable of striking most of
the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far North
as Hudson's Bay, Canada, and as far South as Lima, Peru. In
addition, jet bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are
now being uncrated and assembled in Cuba, while the necessary
air bases are being prepared.
This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important
strategic base -- by the presence of these large, long-range, and
clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction -- constitutes
an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas,
in flagrant and deliberate defiance of the Rio Pact of 1947, the
traditions of this Nation and Hemisphere, the Joint Resolution
of the 87th Congress, the Charter of the United Nations, and my
own public warnings to the Soviets on September 4 and 13. This
action also contradicts the repeated assurances of Soviet spokes-
men, both publicly and privately delivered, that the arms build-up
in Cuba would retain its original defensive character, and that
the Soviet Union had no need or desire to station strategic
missiles on the territory of any other nation.
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The size of this undertaking makes clear that it has
been planned for some months. Yet only last month, after I had
made clear the distinction between any introduction of ground-
to-ground missiles and the existence of defensive anti-aircraft
missiles, the Soviet Government publicly stated on September 11
that, and I quote, "The armaments and military equipment sent
to Cuba are designed exclusively for defensive purposes," and,
and I quote the Soviet Government, ?" There is no need for the
Soviet Government to shift its weapons for a retai1ato-,y blow
to any other country, for instance Cuba," and that, and I quote
the government, "The Soviet Union has so powerful rockets to
carry these nuclear warheads that there is no need to search
for sites for them beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union."
That statement was false.
only last Thursday, as evidence of this rapid offen-
sive build-up was already in my hand, Soviet Foreign Minister
Gromyko told me in my office that he was instructed to make it
clear once again, as he said his government had already done,
that Soviet assistance to Cuba, and I quote, "pursued solely the
purpose of contributing to the defense capabilities of Cuba," that,
and I quote him, "training by Soviet specialists of Cuban
nationals in handling defensive armaments was by no means offen-
sive," and that "if it were otherwise," Mr. Gromyko went on,
"the Soviet Government would never become involved in rendering
such assistance." That statement also was false.
Neither the United States of America nor the world
community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and
offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We
no longer live in a world where only the actual firing of
weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation's security
to constitute maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so destructive
and ballistic missiles are so swift, that any substantially
increased possibility of their use or any sudden change in
their deployment may well be regarded as a definite threat to
peace.
For many years, both the Soviet Union and the United
States, recognizing this fact, have deployed strategic nuclear
weapons with great care, never upsetting the precarious status
quo which insured that these weapons would not be used in the
absence of some vital challenge. Our own strategic missiles have
never been transferred to the territory of any other nation,
under a cloak of secrecy and deception; and our history, unlike
that of the Soviets since the end of World War II, demonstrates
that we have no desire to dominate or conquer any other nation
or impose our system upon its people. Nevertheless, American
citizens have become adjusted to living daily on the bull's eye
of Soviet missiles located inside the USSR or in submarines.
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In that sense, missiles in Cuba add to an already
clear and present danger -- although it should be noted the
nations of Latin America have never previously been subjected to
a potential nuclear threat.
But this secret, swift and extraordinary build-up
of Communist missiles -- in an area well known to have a special
and historical relationship to the United States and the nations
of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances,
and in defiance of American and Hemispheric policy -- this sudden,
clandestine decision to station strategic weapons for the first
time outside of Soviet soil -- is a deliberately provocative and
unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted
by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to
be trusted again by either friend or foe.
The 1930's taught us a clear lesson: aggressive con-
duct, if allowed to grow unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately
leads to war. This nation is opposed to war. We are also true
to our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore, must be to pre-
vent the use of these missiles against this or any other country,
and to secure their withdrawal or elimination from the Western
Hemisphere.
Our policy has been one of patience and restraint, as
befits a peaceful and powerful nation, which leads a worldwide
alliance. We have been determined not to be diverted from our
central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics. But now further
action is required -- and it is underway; and these actions may
only be the beginning. We will not prematurely or unnecessarily
risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits
of victory would be ashes in our mouth -- but neither will we
shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced.
Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own security
and of the entire Western Hemisphere, and under the authority
entrusted to me by the Constitution as endorsed by the Resolution
of the Congress, I have directed that the following initial steps
be taken immediately:
1) First: To halt this offensive build-up, a strict quarantine
on all offensive military equpmment under shipment to Cuba is
being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from
whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of
offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be
extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carriers. We
are not at this time, however, denying the necessities of life as
the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1943.
2) Second: I have directed the continued and increased close
surveillance of Cuba and its military build-up. The Foreign
Ministers of the OAS, in their communique of October 6, rejected
secrecy on such matters in this Hemisphere. Should these offen-
sive military preparations continue, thus increasing the threat
to the Hemisphere, further action will be justified. I have
directed the Armed Forces to prepare for any eventualities; and
I trust that in the interest of both the Cuban people and the
Soviet technicians at the sites, the hazards to all concerned of
continuing this threat will be recognized.
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3) Third: It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any
nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the
Western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United
States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the soviet
Union.
4) Fourth: As a necessary military precaution, I have reinforced
our base at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of our
personnel there, and ordered additional military units to be on
a standby alert basis.
5) Fifth: We are calling tonight for an immediate meeting of
the Organ of Consultation under the Organization of American
States, to consider this threat to hemispheric security and to
invoke Articles 6 and 8 of the Rio Treaty in support of all
necessary action. The United Nations Charter allows for regional
security arrangements -- and the nations of this Hemisphere
decided long ago against the military presence of outside powers.
Our other allies around the world have also been alerted.
6) Sixth: Under the Charter of the United Nations, we are asking
tonight that an emergency meeting of the Security Council be con-
voked without delay to take action against this latest Soviet
threat to world peace. Our resolution will call for the prompt
dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive weapons in Cuba, under
the supervision of UN observers, before the quarantine can be
lifted.
') Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt
and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat
to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations.
I call upon him further to abandon this course of world domination,
and to join in an historic effort to end the perilous arms race
and transform the history of man. He has an opportunity now to
move the world back from the abyss of destruction -- by returning
to his government's own words that it had no need to station mis-
siles outside its own territory, and withdrawing these weapons
from Cuba -- by refraining from any action which will widen or
deepen the present crisis -- and then by participating in a search
for peaceful and permanent solutions.
This Nation is prepared to present its case against
the Soviet threat to peace, and our own proposals for a peaceful
world, at any time and in any forum -- in the OAS, in the United
Nations, or in any other meeting that could be useful -- without
limiting our freedom of action. We have in the past made strenuous
efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. Re have proposed
the elimination of all arms and military bases in a fair and
effective disarmament treaty. We are prepared to discuss,new
proposals for the removal of tensions on both sides -- including
the possibilities of a genuinely independent Cuba, free to deter-
mine its own destiny. We have no wish to war with the Soviet
Union -- for we are a peaceful people who desire to live in peace
with all other peoples.
But it is difficult to settle or even discuss these
problems in an atmosphere of intimidation. That is why this latest
Soviet threat -- or any other threat which is made either
independently or in response to our actions this week -- must and
will be met with determination. Any hostile move anywhere in the
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world against the safety and freedom of peoples to whom we are
committed -- including in particular the brave people of West
Berlin -- will be met by whatever action is needed.
Finally, I want to say a few words to the captive
people of Cuba, to whom this speech is being directly carried
by special radio facilities. I speak to you as a friend, as one
who knows of your deep attachment to your fatherland, as one
who shares your aspirations for liberty and justice for all.
And l have watched and the American people have watched with
deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution was betrayed -- and
how your fatherland fell under foreign domination. Now your
leaders are no longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals.
They are puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which
has turned Cuba against your friends Lind neighbors in the
Americas -- and turned it into the first Latin American country
to become a target for nuclear war -- the first Latin American
country to have these weapons on its soil.
These new weapons are not in your interest. They
contribute nothing to your peace and well being. They can only
undermine it. But this country has no wish to cause you to suffer
or to impose any system upon you. We know that your lives and
land are being used as pawns by those who deny you freedom.
Many times in the past, the Cuban people have risen
to throw out tyrants who destroyed their liberty. And I have
no doubt that most Cubans today look forward to the time when
they will be truly free -- free from foreign domination,. free
to choose their own leaders, free to select their own system,
free to own their own land, free to speak, and write, and worship
without fear or degradation. And then shall Cuba be welcomed back
to the society of free nations and to the associations of this
Hemisphere.
My fellow citizens: Let no one doubt that this is
a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No
one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs
or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-
discipline lie ahead -- months in which both our patience and our
will will be tested -- months in which many threats and denuncia-
tions will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger
of all would be to do nothing.
The path we have chosen for the present is full of
hazards, as all paths are -- but it is tAx, _Nne most consistent
with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments
around the world. The cost of freedom is always high -- but
Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose,
and that is the path of surrender or submission.
Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindica-
tion of right -- not peace at the expense of freedom, but both
peace and freedom, here in this Hemisphere, and, we hope, around
the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.
Thank you and good night,
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