| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 22.10.13 17:09l 48 Lines 2212 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 6248_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Oct 22
Path: IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE3UIL<GB7MAX<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 131022/1456Z 6248@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.57
Oct 22, 1962:
Kennedy announces blockade of Cuba during the Missile Crisis
In a dramatic televised address to the American public, President
John F. Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union has placed
nuclear weapons in Cuba and, in response, the United States will
establish a blockade around the island to prevent any other
offensive weapons from entering Castro's state. Kennedy also
warned the Soviets that any nuclear attack from Cuba would be
construed as an act of war, and that the United States would
retaliate in kind.
Kennedy charged the Soviet Union with subterfuge and outright
deception in what he referred to as a "clandestine, reckless, and
provocative threat to world peace." He dismissed Soviet Foreign
Minister Andrei Gromyko's claim that the weapons in Cuba were of
a purely defensive nature as "false." Harking back to efforts to
contain German, Italian, and Japanese aggression in the 1930s,
Kennedy argued that war-like behavior, "if allowed to grow
unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war.
"The president outlined a plan of action that called for a naval
blockade to enforce a "strict quarantine on all offensive
military equipment under shipment to Cuba." He also issued a
warning to the Soviets that the United States would retaliate
against them if there was a nuclear attack from Cuba, and placed
the U.S. military in the Western Hemisphere on a heightened state
of alert. Kennedy called upon the Organization of American States
(an organization formed by the United States and Latin American
nations in 1948 to help resolve hemispheric disputes) and the
United Nations to help resolve the issue. Finally, he made a
personal plea to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to cease his
"reckless" course of action. Khrushchev, he stated, "has an
opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of
destruction." The world was now poised at the brink of a nuclear
conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. In
America, many citizens began building or replenishing bomb
shelters, waiting anxiously to see what the Soviet response to
Kennedy's speech would be.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Using Outpost Ver 2.8.0 c42
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
