Summary of Thirteen Days

Steven Parolee

English 261

Dr. Furgerough

February 21, 2012

Summary: Thirteen Days pp. 70-98

On October 27th Bobby Kennedy was informed that Soviet personnel in New York were preparing to destroy sensitive documents because they believed the U.S. would be taking military action against Cuba. Shortly after, another letter from Khrushchev to Kennedy had arrived. This letter proposed that the U.S. remove their missiles from Turkey and the Soviets would remove theirs from Cuba. While deliberating about Khrushchev’s, another one came in. This message relayed that Major Rudolf Anderson’s U-2 had been shot down in Cuban air space by a SAM missile.

Soon after learning this Kennedy responded to Khruschev’s most recent letter. There were two conditions outlinedin Kennedy’s response: one, that Khrushchev would remove the weapons from Cuba under supervision and agree to cease from introducing any other offensive weapons to Cuba; and two, the U.S. would remove the quarantine and agree not to invade Cuba. Bobby Kennedy and Ambassador Dobrynin met that night at 7:54 p.m. Kennedy told Dobrynin of the Major who had been shot down, President Kennedy’s reluctance to take military action, and the seriousness of the events that had occurred. After Dobrynin heard of the President’s proposal to Khrushchev he asked about the removal of the missiles in Turkey. Kennedy told Dobrynin that that was not an option at that point but it would be a priority after the current issue was resolved. The next day Ambassador Dobrynin met with Bobby Kennedy and informed him that Khrushchev had accepted the conditions in President Kennedy’s letter.

The remainder of this section of the book RFK went on to tell of the things that he and the President learned from the Cuban missile crisis.

Source

Kennedy, Robert F. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.70-98 Print.