THROUGHOUT THE UNITED States the mood was bleak that Saturday evening, especially after Robert McNamara issued a statement to the public explaining that reconnaissance aircraft had taken fire.1 (He made no mention of Rudy Anderson’s death.) The statement also addressed the US response: “The possibility of further attack on our aircraft and the continued buildup of the offensive weapon systems in Cuba require that we be prepared for any eventuality.… I have instructed the Secretary of the Air Force to order to active duty 24 troop carrier squadrons of the Air Force with their associated units.”
McNamara was making clear to friend and foe that the United States was more than ready to invade Cuba. More alarmingly, though not announced, Strategic Air Command was ready to launch intercontinental missiles targeting over seventy Russian cities.2
Many people, including most US military leaders, endured a night so grim that they wondered if complete destruction of Earth could happen at any moment. McNamara later explained that he too felt the distinct possibility of Armageddon, writing that when he glanced outside the White House and noticed the sun sinking over the October horizon, he “wondered if I’d ever see another sunset like that.”3
McNamara had no cause for optimism. The ongoing events of that Saturday showed that the Soviet Union was willing to test the determination and patience of both the US military and the Kennedy administration. While the firing of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) at Anderson’s U-2 dominated much of the day’s discussion, another potentially violent encounter loomed. The Russian tanker Grozny was still steaming toward the quarantine line, trailed by two US destroyers. The tanker should arrive at the designated five-hundred-mile quarantine line before dawn. The captains of the two destroyers had standing instructions to halt the ship in the least violent way possible. The first procedure would involve trying to ensnare the ship with a long wire cable. If that didn’t work, a shot across the bow might follow, or an attempt to disable the rudder. No one knew what to expect from the Russians if one of their ships was forcibly stopped. How would they retaliate?
IN CUBA THE citizens of Havana prepared for war as best they could. All available nurses and doctors reported to nursing stations, medicine was moved into the basement of government buildings, and antiaircraft guns ringing the capital were manned around the clock.4 Additional defensive trenches were dug along coastal roads near where the Americans might land. The Bay of Pigs must have seemed like a warm-up for the massive invasion that most Cubans believed was just hours away.
The Russians in Cuba also expected the worst. Colonel General Victor Yesin of the Strategic Rocket Forces, which controlled the main component of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal, recalls getting an order on October 27: the bombing would begin soon, and he should have plans for when and where to take cover. “We understood much trouble [was] coming,” said Yesin.5
Fidel Castro was jubilant about the shoot-down of an American U-2.6 Finally, the Russians were joining the Cubans in firing at the intruding aircraft, and the Americans would think twice about invading the island’s airspace. Perhaps Castro fostered the myth circulating among his people that not only had a Cuban pushed the button to launch the SAMs at the spy plane but Castro had issued the order. And some reports even claimed Castro himself had fired the missiles. None of this was true, but the rumors lived on for years. (Castro even told UN Secretary-General U Thant on October 31 that Cuban antiaircraft guns had brought down Anderson’s U-2.)7
But Nikita Khrushchev kept Castro in the dark regarding the negotiations behind the scenes. The Cuban leader was certain that war would erupt within hours and that the Cubans and Russians would fight the Americans side by side.
IT WAS GUT-CHECK time at the White House. President John F. Kennedy and his advisors fought off fatigue while trying to remain focused on the multitude of critical situations before them. They had exhausted every option, and war was coming. Bobby Kennedy turned to a weary Bob McNamara.
ROBERT KENNEDY—How are you doing, Bob?
MCNAMARA—Well. How about yourself?
ROBERT KENNEDY—Alright.
MCNAMARA—You got any doubts?
ROBERT KENNEDY—No, I think that we’re doing the only thing we can do, and so on. You know.
MCNAMARA—I think the one thing, Bobby… we ought to seriously do before we attack them, you’ve got to be damn sure they [the Soviets] understand it’s coming.
ROBERT KENNEDY—Right?
MCNAMARA—In other words, you really need to escalate this.
The talk then turned to what a postinvasion Cuba and Europe might look like, presuming that anyone survived to rebuild. Bobby Kennedy said, “I’d like to take Cuba back. That would be nice.” A voice cheered, “Yeah, let’s take Cuba back from Castro.”8 Finally, in a moment of gallows humor shared by men with tired minds and frayed nerves, someone in the room suggested making Bobby mayor of Havana.
Before breaking after a long evening, the members of ExComm drafted a cable informing a select group of US ambassadors and fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that the situation was deteriorating and that within a very short period the United States might have to “take whatever military action may be necessary to remove this growing threat to the Hemisphere.”9
LATER THAT NIGHT, Bobby and Jack Kennedy had a quiet moment together, and neither was optimistic about a peaceful resolution. In fact, Bobby later wrote, “the expectation was a military confrontation by Tuesday and possibly tomorrow [Sunday].”
While some ExComm members, including Bobby Kennedy, spent what could have been one of their final nights on Earth at home with their families, others slept in their offices. President Kennedy and his close advisor Dave Powers stayed up watching one of JFK’s favorite movies, Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. While the president sought a few brief moments of relaxation, 11,000 marines attached to the Fifth Marine Expeditionary Force set out from San Diego, through the Panama Canal, toward Cuba. The air force called 14,000 reservists to active duty. Invasion was imminent.