Radio and television report to the American people on the Soviet arms build-up in Cuba, 22 October 1962
This file contains materials collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning President Kennedy's radio and television address to the nation regarding the Soviet Union's military presence in Cuba. In his speech the President reports...
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Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 59FOR FLAT RELEASE 7:00 P. M., E.D.T.
OCTOBER 22, 1962
Office of the White House Press Secretary
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
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,
unimistakable 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 Hemipshere.
Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last
Tuesday morning at 9 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 full detail.
The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types
of installations. Several of theminclude. 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 sites not 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 on 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 spokesmen, 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.
The size of this undertaking makes clear that it had been planned some months
ago. Yet only last month, after I had made clear the distinction between
any introduction of ground-to-ground missiles and the existence of defensive
nti-aircraft missiles, the Soviet government publicly stated on September
11 that "the armaments and military equipment sent to Cuba are designed
exclusively for defensive purposes", that "there is no need for the Soviet
Union to shift its weapons
for a retaliatory blow to any other country,
for instance Cuba". and that "the Soviet Union has so powerful rockets to
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