Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy by Ted Widmer & Caroline Kennedy

Author:Ted Widmer & Caroline Kennedy [Widmer, Ted & Kennedy, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

MEETING WITH MILITARY ADVISORS, OCTOBER 16, 1962

This meeting, the first in response to the crisis, begins with a brief conversation between a four-year-old Caroline Kennedy and her father, as the meeting was getting under way.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY WITH DAUGHTER CAROLINE IN THE OVAL OFFICE (PHOTOGRAPH BY JACQUELINE KENNEDY)

CAROLINE: Daddy?

JFK: Oh, excuse me. I’ll see you later, Caroline. I’ll see you later.

CAROLINE: Know what? [I won’t let you do much?] [laughter]

JFK: OK.

ARTHUR LUNDAHL:1 This is a result of the photography taken Sunday, sir. There’s a medium-range ballistic missile launch site and two new military encampments on the southern edge of Sierra del Rosario, in west-central Cuba.

JFK: Where would that be?

LUNDAHL: West-central, sir.

MARSHALL CARTER:2 That’s south of Havana. I think [unclear] represents your three dots we’re talking about. Have you got the …?

[UNIDENTIFIED]: Yes, sir.

LUNDAHL: The President would like to see those. One site, on one of the encampments contains a total of at least fourteen canvas-covered missile trailers measuring sixty-seven feet in length, nine feet in width. The overall length of the trailers plus the tow bars is approximately eighty feet. The other encampment contains vehicles and tents, but with no missile trailers.

CARTER: These are the launchers here. These are missile bases up the [unclear]. In this instance the missile trailer is backing up to the launch point. The launch point of this particular vehicle is here. The missile [unclear] feet long.

LUNDAHL: The site that you have there contains at least eight canvas-covered missile trailers. Four deployed probably missile erector-launchers. These are unvetted. The probable launch positions as indicated are approximately 850 feet, 700 feet, 450 feet, for a total distance of about 2000 feet. In area two, there are at least six canvas-covered missile trailers, about seventy-five vehicles, about 18 tents. And in area number three we have thirty-five vehicles, fifteen large tents, eight small tents, seven buildings, and one building under construction. The critical one—do you see what I mean?—is this one.

CARTER: There is, right there, see? The missile trailer is backing up to it at the moment. It’s got to be. And the missile trailer is here. Seven more have been enlarged here. Those canvas-covered objects on the trailers were sixty-seven feet long, and there’s a small billet between the two of them. The gate on that side of the particular trailer [unclear]. That looks like the most advanced one. Then the other area is about five miles away. There are no launcher-erectors over there, just missiles.

JFK: How far advanced is this?

LUNDAHL: Sir, we’ve never seen this kind of an installation before.

JFK: Not even in the Soviet Union?

LUNDHAHL: No, sir. … But from May of ’60 we have never had any U-2 coverage of the Soviet Union. So we do not know what kind of a practice they would use in connection with …

JFK: How do you know this is a medium-range ballistic missile?

LUNDAHL: The length, sir.

JFK: The what? The length?

LUNDAHL: The length of it, yes.

JFK: The length of the missile? Which part? I mean, which …

LUNDAHL: The missile is …

JFK: Which one is that?

LUNDAHL: This will show it, sir.

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