"LESSONS FROM THE CRISIS"
PRESIDENT KENNEDY ADDRESSES THE NATION
NOVEMBER 30 1964
Walter Cronkite: Good evening. History is the news worth remembering, and you will remember the news this week. President Kennedy is expected to speak shortly on the Soviet military buildup in Cuba. The President returned with his wife and family to Washington yesterday after spending Thanksgiving in Cape Cod. Since President Kennedy defeated Governor Rockefeller earlier this month, all the attention has been paid to the growing nuclear crisis in Cuba. Well today, CBS associates were told by White House officials that the President would be addressing the country from the Oval Office this evening on the current crisis in Cuba. Only hours ago, Secretary of State Fulbright released a statement warning it was only a matter of time before the Soviets reinforced their offensive nuclear posture in Cuba with further medium-range missiles. The State Department supplemented Secretary Fulbright’s statement with a memorandum that declared the United States would not tolerate any infringement of the Monroe Doctrine or Soviet expansion in the Western Hemisphere…
President Kennedy: Good evening my fellow citizens.
This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet Military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past few weeks, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites are 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. As in my previous statements, we have determined that the missiles are not yet operational. It is not clear, however, how long this will remain the case.
Yesterday, reliable intelligence detected Soviet transport ships departing the Soviet Union. Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature, 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.
It seems clear that this new transport is a deliberate attempt at provocation. We estimate that there are now in Cuba several intermediate range ballistic missiles, capable of traveling more than twice as far as medium range weapons—and thus able to strike most of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere, ranging as far north as Hudson Bay in 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 traditions of this Nation and the Monroe Doctrine, the joint resolution of the 88th Congress, and my own public warnings to the Soviet Union. This action also contradicts the repeated assurances of Soviet spokesmen, both publicly and privately delivered, that the arms buildup 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.
The size of this undertaking makes clear that it has been planned for some months. Yet only this past October, 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, and I quote, "the armaments and military equipment sent to Cuba are designed exclusively for defensive purposes”; that—and I quote—"there is no need for the Soviet Government to shift its weapons . . . for a retaliatory blow to any other country, for instance Cuba"; and that—I quote their government again—"the Soviet Union has such 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 offensive buildup 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 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 offensive, and 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 its allies 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.
But this secret, swift, and extraordinary buildup 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…