8. Kennedy addresses the nation on the situation in Cuba
On October 22, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union met with Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev to inform him of America’s knowledge of the Soviet activity in Cuba and the details of the impending quarantine. Kennedy called former president Eisenhower to brief him, with Eisenhower informing the President that he could expect Berlin to be used as a bargaining chip. That evening Kennedy went on national television to announce the Soviet missile buildup and the quarantine, warning that any attack launched from Cuba would be considered an attack by the Soviet Union, and that the United States would launch a “full retaliatory response on the Soviet Union”. Thus Kennedy placed nuclear war on the table in the dispute with the Soviets over Cuba. Kennedy also announced that the United States would not deny “the necessities of life” to Cuba, “as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948”
Kennedy’s speech, and diplomatic efforts in nations around the world, received a widely varying response. The Chinese announced that they stood with the Cuban people. The Turks responded to a diplomatic feeler about removing the Jupiter missiles from Turkey by stating that they would “resent” such an arrangement. US military forces around the world went to an elevated alert status. The US Navy began deploying ships to the Caribbean and the Atlantic approaches, with USS Newport News, a heavy cruiser, assigned as the flagship for the quarantine force. Soviet ships continued on their courses for the island of Cuba. In West Germany support for the American action was nearly universal while in DeGaulle’s France the authenticity of the evidence Kennedy had presented during his speech was openly questioned by several newspapers.