A selection of the people who participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Links go to the interview in the Oral History Program created for the John F. Kennedy Library. Leaders of the US, USSR, and Cuba
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Interviews Mary Dudziak, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory Law School Michael Dobbs, Cold War historian and author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: Uneasy Peace [MUSIC FADES IN] JAMIE RICHARDSON: Saturday, October 27 had been the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. MAX HASTINGS: So it was a terrifying day
By October 22, 1962, after days of long discussions with his advisors, John F. Kennedy was ready to go public about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. His address to the American people laid out his plan to initiate a naval quarantine to prevent more Soviet ships and weapons from reaching Cuba. He also stressed the uncertainty and danger that lay in the days and months ahead. In Moscow, this announcement stunned and angered Nikita Khrushchev, who learned that his atomic gambit had failed.
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: Duck and Cover [MUSIC FADES IN] [CLIP FROM PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S ADDRESS TO THE NATION ABOUT THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS ON 10/22/1962] JOHN F. KENNEDY: We will not prematurely
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: A Pretty Bad Fix In the first few days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy and his advisors faced an extremely difficult choice on whether to attack Cuba, and
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: We Are All Mortal [MUSIC FADES IN] MATT PORTER: After the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest moment the world had come to a global nuclear war at the time
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: The Challenges Ahead JAMIE RICHARDSON: The atomic gambit podcast is produced by the JFK Library Foundation and made possible with the help of a generous grant from the
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: The Cuban Missile Crisis 60 Years Later JOHN F KENNEDY: But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course, both rightly alarmed
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: A Pretty Bad Fix MATT PORTER: When President Kennedy CIA director told him the Soviets had secretly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba on October 16th, his fears and warnings
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: A Very Dangerous Road [CLIP OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS] PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: The Challenges Ahead Sixty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, today’s world leaders can apply lessons learned to potential future nuclear crises. Former Obama
JFK Library · Let Us Begin: Peace for All Time SPEAKER: The JFK35 podcast is made possible through generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. PRESIDENT KENNEDY: We do not want a
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: Black Saturday October 27, 1962, also known as “Black Saturday," was the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis as events began to spiral out of control. With two
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: Black Saturday [MUSIC FADES IN] [CLIP FROM A 1986 INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT MCNAMARA] ROBERT MCNAMARA: I remember leaving the White House at the end of that Saturday. It was a
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: Uneasy Peace John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev reached an agreement about the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 28, but the crisis wouldn’t end there. Fidel Castro
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: The Cuban Missile Crisis 60 Years Later View the transcript for the trailer. On October 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy was told the Soviet Union was assembling
JFK Library · Let Us Begin: The Hour of Maximum Danger HOST: The JFK35 podcast is made possible through generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. JOHN F KENNEDY: All free men
In the summer of 1963, JFK arrived in a divided Germany with the recent construction of the new Berlin Wall nearly two years earlier. President John F. Kennedy spent his entire administration in a “twilight struggle” with the Soviet Union including averting possible total war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Historian Tim Naftali takes us from JFK’s Presidential Campaign to his final foreign trip to West Berlin. The Atlantic staff writer and Cold War expert Tom Nichols explains how JFK’s Cold War legacy has continued on through today.
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: We Are All Mortal After the United States and Soviet Union survived the Cuban Missile Crisis and its immediate aftermath, the next steps for the two superpowers would be
JFK Library · Atomic Gambit: A Very Dangerous Road In President Kennedy’s inaugural address, he warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons and of war that could result in the deaths of millions. As a
In October 1962, the world came perilously close to nuclear annihilation when JFK learned of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. This special podcast series, Atomic Gambit: The Cuban Missile Crisis 60 Years Later, explores the 13 days and beyond of this turning point in world history.
JFK Library · Undelivered Speeches that Could Have Rewritten History CO-HOST JAMIE RICHARDSON: The JFK35 Podcast is made possible through generous support from the Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation.
JFK Library · Growing Up Between Two World Wars CO-HOST JAMIE RICHARDSON: The JFK35 Podcast is made possible through generous support from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. [PODCAST INTRO
In this episode, we look back at President Kennedy's American University speech with historian Fredrik Logevall and people who were there on campus. We also interview former Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz about JFK’s legacy when it comes to nuclear arms and national security. We also look at JFK’s other legacy of peace with an interview with the 21st Director of the Peace Corps Carol Spahn.