JFK Tapes of Cuban Crisis Released, Showing Tension

Tape recordings released from President Kennedy’s library Wednesday documented tension in the White House after the Cuban missile crisis as Kennedy debated whether the United States should promise not to invade Cuba.

The nine hours of tapes, taken from conversations held in the Oval Office, are the latest in a series that have been released periodically by the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in the last 17 years. The conversations took place from Nov. 7 to Nov. 16, 1962, after the Soviet Union publicly agreed to pull its missiles out of Cuba in the Cuban missile crisis.

Sheldon Stern, a former historian at the library who reviewed portions of the tapes, including the excerpts released to the media, said the new tapes, while not as dramatic as tapes made when the crisis was at its grim height, shed light on how the crisis wound down.

They also show a president who is firmly in charge, he said.

“He’s making up his mind, he’s listening to input from his advisors. It’s perfectly clear from these tapes and all the others that these decisions were made by the president,” he said.

In a 20-minute segment of tape on the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy and his advisors can be heard discussing whether the prospect of an American pledge to not invade Cuba would encourage the Soviets to pull out its bombers.

“We’re not planning to invade Cuba, anyway. . . . We don’t plan to invade Cuba. But we’re ready to give that in a more formal way when they meet their commitments,” Kennedy said on the tapes.

Kennedy was concerned what it would look like if the Soviets didn’t pull out the bombers, wondering if it would seem “we failed to get what we wanted, we’ve settled for less.”

But he also saw problems with reversing direction on the no-invasion pledge.

“I don’t think we look very good to say, ‘Well, we withdraw our commitment that we won’t invade,’ ” he said.

Ultimately, said Stern, the Soviets agreed to pull out the bombers and agreed to pull back the tarpaulins when the missiles were loaded onto ships so they could be counted from the air.

Kennedy lifted the blockade of Cuba on Nov. 20, putting an end to the crisis.