On Oct. 18, tempers flare over the prolonged debate over what to do about Cuba.
09:30 - During a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting, Air Force Chief Gen. Curtis LeMay becomes frustrated by the lack of progress in deciding what to do over the missiles in Cuba. He asks "are we really going to do anything except talk?" Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Taylor replies that there will be "a political approach followed by a warning, a blockade, air strikes, invasion."
10:30 - Meanwhile, the Soviet cargo ship Pogbinek arrives Cuba from Nikolaev, Ukraine, with mobile nuclear warhead teams on board.
11:00 - During an ExComm meeting, Robert Kennedy raises the question of whether a surprise air attack would be morally right. It was later said that he spent "more time on this moral question than on any other matter."
14:30 - President Kennedy is also concerned about the morality of an airstrike, and in a meeting with advisor Dean Acheson, describes it as "Pearl Harbor in reverse." Acheson, however, dismisses the analogy as "silly" and advises an airstrike.
17:00 - The USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Gromyko, shown above, meets with President Kennedy and accuses him of "pestering" Cuba and denies that the Soviet Union is sending offensive missiles to Cuba. Kennedy privately refers to Gromyko as "that lying bastard."
21:00 - ExComm meets again and informs President Kennedy that its majority supports a naval blockade of Cuba. Kennedy subsequently requests the preparation of a brief to establish the legal basis of such a blockade. ExComm is also presented with the first in a daily series of "joint evaluations" from the CIA and is told that "one must assume that nuclear warheads could now be available in Cuba" and that MRBMs in Cuba could probably be launched in 18 hours. Over the course of the meeting, ExComm's original consensus to a naval blockade breaks down. Instead, the group splits and begins developing plans for both the blockade and for a military airstrike to present to the president.
JFK Library Archives
