THE U-2 PILOTS at McCoy Air Force Base and their operations officer, Tony Martinez, gathered around the black-and-white TV. The group had been billeted in two large single-family homes on the base to limit their contact with other air force personnel so that no one outside the spy plane pilots knew they were flying over Cuba. Now, at 6:55 p.m. on the night of Monday, October 22, the men sat quietly waiting for the president to address the nation. They knew he was going to announce the United States’ response to the missiles they had been photographing, but they didn’t know just what that response would be. By now, Fidel Castro had mobilized 270,000 Cubans, insisting all would fight to the last man and were willing to die for the Revolution.1
Tension filled the air, maybe more so than in the homes of other American citizens—most of these air force men had received training with nuclear weapons during their prior stints as F-84 fighter-bomber pilots. They were aware that B-52s were now circling off the northernmost coast of the Soviet Union, loaded with nuclear bombs. Some, like Jerry McIlmoyle, had even seen a nuclear bomb detonation at Yucca Flats, Nevada. These pilots knew all too well the horrors that nuclear weapons could unleash, and they understood that President John F. Kennedy’s upcoming speech would likely push the nation one step closer to war.
At Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, the pilots’ wives also gathered together to watch the speech. Many had not heard from their husbands in several days and hoped the president could provide some information as to their mission.
At precisely 7 p.m. President Kennedy appeared on the TV screen, seated at his desk in the Oval Office wearing a dark suit and blue shirt. He had been fitted into a tight corset and sat on two pillows. Two microphones were on his desk, and a horde of TV people stood off camera, their lights shining in his eyes and their film equipment running. Either President Kennedy was at peace with his decision and the thoroughness of his deliberations, or he was one hell of an actor. He addressed the nation calmly, clearly, and firmly, exuding determination. One would never suspect that he had just come out of a grueling meeting with the leaders of Congress. His words were measured, unhurried, and deliberate.
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.
The president described the missiles, the scope of the Soviet undertaking, and the Russians’ false assurances that they would deliver no offensive weapons to Cuba. He then used a touch of history to justify the United States’ response: “The 1930s taught us a clear lesson: Aggressive conduct, if allowed to grow unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war.”
A minute later the president added a chilling statement, not just to brace Americans for what could follow but to warn Nikita Khrushchev: “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.”
The next part of his speech outlined the steps being implemented, emphasizing that the blockade was an initial step and that the US armed forces were preparing for any eventuality. And in a brilliant turn of phrase, Kennedy painted the conflict as one not just of the Soviet Union against the United States but of the Soviets versus the entire Western Hemisphere: “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 against the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.”
He closed by appealing to the American people to show courage and patience during the ordeal:
The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are, but it is the one 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 vindication 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.
The speech lasted seventeen minutes.
The U-2 pilots huddled around the TV set were not immune to fear and trepidation. Jerry McIlmoyle remembers letting out a sigh of relief when the president announced a blockade rather than immediate air strikes. But Kennedy’s declaration that the launch of a nuclear weapon from Cuba against any country in the Western Hemisphere would result in “a full retaliatory response against the Soviet Union” ratcheted Jerry’s concern up a notch. After the speech, he recalled, Steve Heyser—whom all the pilots looked up to—said he believed Kennedy would not lead the country to war except as a last resort. The pilots nodded, but they were one somber group after the speech. “All I could think to do at that moment,” recalls Jerry, “was to pray and ask God not to let war break out. Then I picked up the phone, called my wife Patty and told her I loved her, and went to bed.” Patty, Jane Anderson, and the other U-2 wives now knew the secret their husbands had so closely guarded.
There was a lot of praying in the United States that night, and despite earlier warnings in the press that a crisis was brewing, many people were shocked by the magnitude and ramifications of the confrontation. The news that Kennedy announced to the country’s citizens was as alarming as anything that had come out of a president’s mouth since Franklin Roosevelt announced the Pearl Harbor attack. Fortunately Kennedy’s delivery was reassuring and showed that he was in control. His voice contained just a hint of anger when he spoke about how the Soviets had assured him they would send no offensive weapons to Cuba. Mostly, he balanced the need for both forcefulness and calm in those seventeen minutes. The speech was brilliantly executed—galvanizing, confident, and wise.
Still, the administration knew that Khrushchev’s response was unpredictable. He might tell his ships to run the blockade and test whether Kennedy would really sink them. He might put his own blockade on West Berlin. He might order immediate installation of the nuclear warheads on the missiles in Cuba. Or the Soviet premier might take a defensive approach—a deadly one for the U-2 pilots at McCoy—by giving authorization to shoot down any plane that flew over Cuban airspace.
Fidel Castro was sure to be defiant as a result of the president’s speech, but Kennedy and his advisors felt certain that leaders in Moscow, not Havana, were calling the shots. To be on the safe side, however, the Joint Chiefs of Staff kept twenty-two fighter jets in a holding pattern over Florida both during and after the speech. No one knew for sure if a response would come via a public statement, closed communication, or surprise military action.
WHILE AMERICANS WENT to bed that night filled with anxiety, out on the high seas at least twenty-five Soviet ships continued steaming toward Cuba. Getting ready to intercept them were ninety navy ships, eight aircraft carriers, and several squadrons of aircraft. To give the Soviets time to communicate with their ships, the blockade would go into effect at 10 a.m. on October 24. The quarantine line was originally set for eight hundred miles outside Cuba, partly because the Soviets had shipped IL-28 bombers to the island. The bombers were still being assembled, but they had a range of just over seven hundred miles, and once operational they could reach the naval blockade line. Despite that risk, on Tuesday Kennedy moved the quarantine line to a five-hundred-mile radius around the island. The bomber threat took a backseat to the administration’s hope that the Soviets might turn their ships back. Kennedy theorized that in the time it took the Soviet ships to travel that extra three hundred miles toward confrontation, cooler heads might prevail at the Kremlin.
All of the US military had gone into Defense Condition (DEFCON) 3, an advanced state of readiness for war. Thousands of US marines were sent to Florida and placed on standby as the first wave of the invasion force. Nearly two hundred B-47 bombers carrying nuclear weapons were dispersed to thirty-two locations across the United States, as a group of Polaris nuclear submarines moved silently into position around the Caribbean. Preparations were made for an all-out invasion if the Russians failed to accept the quarantine line. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara asked for 250,000 troops, 2,000 sorties over various targets in Cuba, and an additional 90,000 marines and army paratroopers for the invasion force. The United States was also prepared to pay a heavy toll. The Pentagon estimated that American casualties would exceed 25,000. The next terrifying step was DEFCON 2, which the United States entered on October 24. It was one step away from war.
THE INTERPRETERS AT the National Photographic Interpretation Center worked through that Monday night, analyzing the latest batches of film from U-2 flights on October 20 and 21. More than just providing the proof of what the Soviets were doing on Cuba, the analyses were also instrumental in prioritizing targets for bombing missions. Meanwhile General Curtis LeMay updated Secretary of Defense McNamara that Atlas and Titan missiles, aimed at the Soviet Union, were ready for firing.
On the other side of the world, Khrushchev was digesting Kennedy’s speech. Almost immediately, he along with the Soviet Presidium decided to continue with the construction of the missile launch sites. As the United States had missiles in Turkey and Italy, they reasoned, the Soviets should have the same in Cuba. And like the United States they raised their military’s war readiness not only in Cuba but around the world.
Khrushchev continued to publicly insist the weapons in Cuba were defensive. Knowing the US military would be on high alert, he reversed his earlier decision to allow his generals in Cuba to authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Instead that authorization must come from Khrushchev if the United States launched an invasion. The premier, like Kennedy, worried that the situation could spin out of control. If there was to be nuclear war, he would make that decision. Besides the tactical nuclear weapons already in Cuba, many of the nuclear warheads for the missiles were there as well. As far as the blockade went, he ordered most vessels on the way to Cuba to return to the Soviet Union but let four submarines and a limited number of ships continue to the island to test Kennedy’s resolve.