Kennedy Response To The Cuban Missile Crisis

On October 16th, 1962, both the United States and the Soviet Union partook in a thirteen-day impasse concerning the construction of nuclear missile sites located in Cuba, merely 90 miles away from the coast of Florida, known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Realizing exactly how close this installation was, President Kennedy and the Executive Community, a group of fifteen members meant to advise the president and commonly recognized as Excomm, convened for the next twelve days in hopes to solve the dilemma at hand. Determined to not repeat the same errors as in the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy made sure that the consideration of all options and consequences would be accredited using the most factual data available. Therefore, many arguments transpired scrutinizing how to respond to such a situation at the Excomm meeting on October 16th. Though attacking in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis was not Kennedy’s preferred reaction,
Wanting to decrease the chances of a nuclear war, Kennedy asked the members of Excomm how they felt they should respond to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because many opposed air strikes for the sake that it might make matters worse, they came up with alternatives. While General Maxwell Taylor felt that U.S. troops should fight, Robert McNamara believed that our troops would be overrun by Soviet troops. Therefore, Llewellyn Thompson suggested that maybe Nikita Khrushchev was using this entire situation as a preparation for a negotiation, and to reach this outcome, a naval blockade should be used to prevent excessive damage. President Kennedy called for the blockades, but if necessary, he was prepared to attack. If the U.S. were to send airstrikes, they could remove the missiles, but they also risk the retaliation of the Soviet Union which could mean war, so a naval blockade was, at the moment, the safest yet most practical route. (Source