Played 20 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
“On Saturday evening, October 27, with the Soviet freighter Grozny rapidly approaching the blockade, the president sent off a letter to Moscow accepting the terms of the October 26 letter, the removal of the missiles in Cuba in exchange for a U.S. non-invasion pledge. At the same time, the president instructed his brother to privately assure Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin that the Jupiter missiles in Turkey would be removed but that this pledge could not be made publicly.
Just before he left for his meeting with Dobrynin, Robert Kennedy had this exchange with McNamara:
RFK: How are you doing Bob?
McNamara: Well. How about yourself?
RFK: All right.
McNamara: You got any doubts?
RFK: Well, no. I think that we’re doing the only thing we can do, and well, you know.
[Inaudible]
McNamara: I think the one thing, Bobby, we ought to seriously do before we act is be damned sure they understand the consequences. In other words, we need to really show them where we are now, because we need to have two things ready: a government for Cuba, because we’re going to need one—we go in with bombing aircraft; and, secondly, plans for how to respond to the Soviet Union in Europe, because sure as hell they’re going to do something there.
The conversation continues as Dillon rejoins the discussion:
Dillon: You have to pick out the things they might—
McNamara: Well, I think, that’s right.
[Unclear]
McNamara: I would suggest that it will be an eye for an eye.
Dillon: That’s the mission.
Unidentified: I’d take Cuba back.
Unidentified: I’d take Cuba away from Castro.
Unidentified: Suppose we make Bobby mayor of Havana.”
Courtesy of National Security Archives.
