JFK Orders Blockade of Cuba, 1962/10/22 (1962) Missile crisis

[madfloridian]

Run time: 03:08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0MUbVQl9Ns   Posted on YouTube: September 13, 2006 By YouTube Member: UniversalNewsreels Views on YouTube: 13082   Posted on DU: December 06, 2006 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 1487

 
"JFK speaks on Cuban Missile Crisis - "Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba" - "a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment has been initiated" - "clandestine, reckless" - JFK had meeting with Gromyko (partial newsreel)"

[WCGreen]

1. I remember that well....

It was my fifth birthday...

Suddenly, all the adults were quiet and starring at the TV...

[BushOut06]

2. I'm too young to remember this, but why was this such a big deal?

I understand that it was a big deal because it meant Soviet nukes right off the US coast. But didn't we also have nukes in West Germany? I don't understand why it was okay for us to do it, but not the Russians.

[Frustratedlady]

3. I remember this period very clearly, too.

My children were babies and I was scared to death. People were building bomb shelters, storing water and food, civilian bomb shelters were being stocked and evacuation plans made. That's how serious we took the whole situation. It was a very tense time until Russia finally backed down.

[madfloridian]

4. My kids were young, and I did feel fear.

:hi:

[rman]

5. I find it hard to believe the Russians firgured they could do this

and not be noticed. In other words: they knew it would be noticed, and then they went ahead and did it. I think they wanted it to be noticed. Question is why.

[FogerRox]

6. I dont think the USSR thought we would get pictures

from space, showing the missle installations, within hours. Maybe the USSR thought they could get a tow hold in Cuba, before we were on to them. The Cubans had not even gotten things properly offloaded, they were just starting to set up, some of the stuff wasnt even set up.

And we showed the Russians pictures of what was going on in under 48 hrs.

[rman]

7. The swiftness may have surprised them

But if it wasn't from space then it would have been from a spy plane. If fact the U2 was used to keep track of the events.
The Russians might not have know about the U2 specifically (not unlikely that they did know), but still: why would the Russians think the US had no spy planes or that they would avoid Cuba in the surveillance, or that they would not see the missiles?

[FogerRox]

8. SAMs shot this guy down over Cuba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Anderson

IT may have been that the USSR felt entitled, as we had our bases & missles in Turkey, etc. ANd that our spy planes & sats were better & faster that the Soviets initially thought.

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. can you imagine if Bush was president during this time?

we'd be typing messages to eachother on rocks, well, if we were cockroaches.