Here is the video clip of the
speech. Scroll down for the transcript.
It follows the full text transcript of
JFK's Cuban Missile address, broadcast from
Washington D.C. - October 22, 1962.
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
purposes of these bases can be none other than
to provide a nuclear strike capability against
the Western Hemisphere.
Upon receiving the first preliminary hard
information of this nature last Tuesday morning
(October 16) at 9:00 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 fullest detail.
The characteristics of these new missile sites
indicate two distinct types of installations.
Several of them include medium-range ballistic
missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead
for a distance of more than 1,000 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 Bay, Canada, and as far
south as Lima, Peru. In addition, jet bombers,
capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are now
being uncrated and assembled in 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
has been planned for some months. Yet only last
month, after I had made clear the distinction
between any introduction of ground-to-ground
missiles and the existence of defensive
antiaircraft missiles, the Soviet Government
publicly stated on September 11 that, and I
quote, "The armaments and military equipment
sent to Cuba are designed exclusively for
defensive purposes," and, and I quote the Soviet
Government, "There is no need for the Soviet
Government to shift its weapons for a
retaliatory blow to any other country, for
instance Cuba," and that, and I quote the
Government, "The Soviet Union has so powerful
rockets to carry these nuclear warheads that
there is no need to search for sites for them
beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union." That
statement was false.
Only last Thursday, as evidence of this rapid
offensive build-up was already in my hand,
Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko told me in my
office that he was instructed to make it clear
once again, as he said his Government had
already done, that Soviet assistance to Cuba,
and I quote, "pursued solely the purpose of
contributing to the defense capabilities of
Cuba," that, and I quote him, "training by
Soviet specialists of Cuban nationals in
handling defensive armaments was by no means
offensive," and that "if it were otherwise," Mr.
Gromyko went on, "the Soviet Government would
never become involved in rendering such
assistance." That statement also was false.
Neither the United States of America nor the
world community of nations can tolerate
deliberate deception and offensive threats on
the part of any nation, large or small. We no
longer live in a world where only the actual
firing of weapons represents a sufficient
challenge to a nation's security to constitute
maximum peril. Nuclear weapons are so
destructive and ballistic missiles are so swift
that any substantially increased possibility of
their use or any sudden change in their
deployment may well be regarded as a definite
threat to peace.
For many years both the Soviet Union and the
United States, recognizing this fact, have
deployed strategic nuclear weapons with great
care, never upsetting the precarious status quo
which insured that these weapons would not be
used in the absence of some vital challenge. Our
own strategic missiles have never been
transferred to the territory of any other nation
under a cloak of secrecy and deception; and our
history, unlike that of the Soviets since the
end of World War 11, demonstrates that we have
no desire to dominate or conquer any other
nation or impose our system upon its people.
Nevertheless, American citizens have become
adjusted to living daily on the bull's eye of
Soviet missiles located inside the U.S.S.R. or
in submarines.
In that sense missiles in Cuba add to an already
clear and present danger-although it should be
noted the nations of Latin America have never
previously been subjected to a potential nuclear
threat.
But this secret, swift, and extraordinary
build-up of Communist missiles-in an area well
known to have a special and historical
relationship to the United States and the
nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation
of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of
American and hemispheric policy-this sudden,
clandestine decision to station strategic
weapons for the first time outside of Soviet
soil-is a deliberately provocative and
unjustified change in the status quo which
cannot be accepted by this country if our
courage and our commitments are ever to be
trusted again by either friend or foe.
The 1930's taught us a clear lesson: Aggressive
conduct, if allowed to grow unchecked and
unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. This
nation is opposed to war. We are also true to
our word. Our unswerving objective, therefore,
must be to prevent the use of these missiles
against this or any other country and to secure
their withdrawal or elimination from the Western
Hemisphere.
Our policy has been one of patience and
restraint, as befits a peaceful and powerful
nation, which leads a world-wide alliance. We
have been determined not to be diverted from our
central concerns by mere irritants and fanatics.
But now further action is required-and it is
underway; and these actions may only be the
beginning. 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.
Acting, therefore, in the defense of our own
security and of the entire Western Hemisphere,
and under the authority entrusted to me by the
Constitution as endorsed by the resolution of
the Congress, I have directed that the following
initial steps be taken immediately:
First:
To halt this
offensive build-up, a strict quarantine on all
offensive military equipment under shipment to
Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind
bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port
will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive
weapons, be turned back: This quarantine will be
extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and
carriers. We are not at this time, however,
denying the necessities of life as the Soviets
attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of
1948.
Second:
I have directed
the continued and increased close surveillance
of Cuba and its military build-up. The Foreign
Ministers of the Organization of American States
in their communiqu6 of October 3 rejected
secrecy on such matters in this Hemisphere.
Should these offensive military preparations
continue, thus increasing the threat to the
Hemisphere, further action will be justified. I
have directed the Armed Forces to prepare for
any eventualities; and I trust that in the
interests of both the Cuban people and the
Soviet technicians at the sites, the hazards to
all concerned of continuing this threat will be
recognized.
Third:
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 on the United States, requiring a
full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
Fourth:
As a necessary
military precaution I have reinforced our base
at Guantanamo, evacuated today the dependents of
our personnel there, and ordered additional
military units to be on a standby alert basis.
Fifth:
We are calling
tonight for an immediate meeting of the Organ of
Consultation, under the Organization of American
States, to consider this threat to hemispheric
security and to invoke articles six and eight of
the Rio Treaty in support of all necessary
action. The United Nations Charter allows for
regional security arrangements-and the nations
of this Hemisphere decided long ago against the
military presence of outside powers. Our other
allies around the world have also been alerted.
Sixth:
Under the Charter
of the United Nations, we are asking tonight
that an emergency meeting of the Security
Council be convoked without delay to take action
against this latest Soviet threat to world
peace. Our resolution will call for the prompt
dismantling and withdrawal of all offensive
weapons in Cuba, under the supervision of United
Nations observers, before the quarantine can be
lifted.
Seventh and finally:
I call upon
Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this
clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to
world peace and to stable relations between our
two nations. I call upon him further to abandon
this course of world domination and to join in
an historic effort to end the perilous arms race
and transform the history of man. He has an
opportunity now to move the world back from the
abyss of destruction-by returning to his
Government's own words that it had no need to
station missiles outside its own territory, and
withdrawing these weapons from Cuba-by
refraining from any action which will widen or
deepen the present crisis-and then by
participating in a search for peaceful and
permanent solutions.
This nation is
prepared to present its case against the Soviet
threat to peace, and our own proposals for a
peaceful world, at. any time and in any forum in
the Organization of American States, in the
United Nations, or in any other meeting that
could be useful-without limiting our freedom of
action.
We have in the past made strenuous efforts to
limit the spread of nuclear weapons. We have
proposed the elimination of all arms and
military bases in a fair and effective
disarmament treaty. We are prepared to discuss
new proposals for the removal of tensions on
both sides-including the possibilities of a
genuinely independent Cuba, free to determine
its own destiny. We have no wish to war with the
Soviet Union, for we are a peaceful people who
desire to live in peace with all other peoples.
But it is difficult to settle or even discuss
these problems in an atmosphere of intimidation.
That is why this latest Soviet threat-or any
other threat which is made either independently
or in response to our actions this week-must and
will be met with determination. Any hostile move
anywhere in the world against the safety and
freedom of peoples to whom we are
committed-including in particular the brave
people of West Berlin-will be met by whatever
action is needed.
Finally, I want to say a few words to the
captive people of Cuba, to whom this speech is
being directly carried by special radio
facilities. I speak to you as a friend, as one
who knows of your deep attachment to your
fatherland, as one who shares your aspirations
for liberty and justice for all. And I have
watched and the American people have watched
with deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution
was betrayed and how your fatherland fell under
foreign domination. Now your leaders are no
longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals.
They are puppets and agents of an international
conspiracy which has turned Cuba against your
friends and neighbors in the Americas-and turned
it into the first Latin American country to
become a target for nuclear war, the first Latin
American country to have these weapons on its
soil.
These new weapons are not in your interest. They
contribute nothing to your peace and well being.
They can only undermine it. But this country has
no wish to cause you to suffer or to impose any
system upon you. We know that your lives and
land are being used as pawns by those who deny
you freedom.
Many times in the past Cuban people have risen
to throw out tyrants who destroyed their
liberty. And I have no doubt that most Cubans
today look forward to the time when they will be
truly free-free from foreign domination, free to
choose their own leaders, free to select their
own system, free to own their own land, free to
speak and write and worship without fear or
degradation. And then shall Cuba be welcomed
back to the society of free nations and to the
associations of this Hemisphere.
My fellow citizens, let no one doubt that this
is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we
have set out. No one can foresee precisely what
course it will take or what costs or casualties
will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and
self-discipline lie ahead-months in which both
our patience and our will will be tested, months
in which many threats and denunciations will
keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest
danger of all would be to do nothing.
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.
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 BC -
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
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