
Date of issue: 08.02.2022
Song language: English
The Cuban Missile Crisis |
Good evening, my fellow citizens: |
Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last |
Tuesday morning at 9 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. |
That statement was false. |
That statement also was false. |
The 1930's taught us a clear lesson: aggressive conduct, if allowed to go |
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. |
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: |
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. |
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 U.N. observers, before the quarantine can be lifted. |
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. |
Thank you and good night. |