ExComm Meetings On October 16, 1962, the first day of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy created a group of advisers known as the Executive Committee of the U.S. National Security Council. For two weeks they met in secret trying to prevent the world's first nuclear war. Here are extensive text and audio excerpts from four key White House meetings.
Kennedy's Missile Crisis Speech On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy went on national television to publicly announce the threat of Soviet nuclear capability in Cuba. After this speech, many Americans felt nuclear war was imminent.
Khrushchev's Response to Kennedy On October 28, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev read the following message to U.S. President John F. Kennedy on Radio Moscow. He responded to Kennedy's letter, sent the day before, by stating that with America's promise not to invade Cuba, the nuclear weapons installed there are no longer necessary.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution The U.S. House and Senate passed the following resolution by an overwhelming majority on August 7, 1964, five days after the USS Maddox had been fired upon by the North Vietnamese. The resolution allowed President Lyndon Johnson to take "all necessary steps" to protect the forces of the United States and its allies. As a result, U.S. participation in Vietnam grew -- without a formal declaration of war.
U.S. State Department "White Paper" on Vietnam The following white paper from the State Department was written in early 1965 as the United States was stepping up its involvement in Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder, a large-scale bombing of North Vietnamese military targets, began on March 2, and on March 8, the first U.S. ground troops had landed.
Ho Chi Minh Letter to LBJ In this 1967 letter to President Lyndon Johnson, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh speaks harshly about U.S. actions in the conflict and states that he will not consider negotiations until the United States ceases its bombing of Vietnam. Although Johnson did order several halts, negotiations failed as bombing resumed.
Nixon's 'Silent Majority' speech In November 1969, a year after he was elected, President Nixon gave the following address on the situation in Vietnam. The war was unpopular and seemed pointless to many. Protests were rampant, so in this speech Nixon defended his decision to keep U.S. forces in Vietnam and explained why negotiations had failed so far.
Eisenhower's "Military-Industrial Complex" Speech At the end of his tenure as president, Dwight Eisenhower gave the following speech -- warning of the growing influence of the "military-industrial complex."
Robert McNamara's "No Cities Doctrine" Speech In this 1962 speech, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara offered a new nuclear strategy -- one that would target nuclear weapons at military bases only, not civilian populations. It became known as the "No Cities" doctrine.
Robert McNamara's "Mutual Deterrence" Speech In the mid-1960s, Robert McNamara, then U.S. secretary of defense, supplemented the "No Cities" doctrine of 1962 with that of "mutual deterrence." According to this policy, if the Soviets knew that an attack on the U.S. would guarantee the equivalent destruction of the U.S.S.R., then the Soviets would be less likely to attack.
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty By the late 1960s there were five declared nuclear powers in the world -- the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China. Concern over the spread of nuclear weapons led to the development of the 1968 international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- which called on the nuclear powers to not transfer nuclear weapons, or nuclear weapon technology, to non-nuclear states.