The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

by Fred Kaplan

Not long after, away from the Cabinet Room, President Kennedy sent his brother to the Soviet embassy with a message for Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin: he would accept the trade, but only if it is never publicly revealed. (Kennedy apparently agreed with Bundy that an open trade might irritate the NATO allies.) The official announcement, Bobby told Dobrynin on his brother’s behalf, must be worded along the lines of Khrushchev’s offer Friday night: a withdrawal of the Soviet missiles in exchange for an American promise never to invade Cuba. Kennedy seemed to think this pledge would be enough to let Khrushchev claim victory to his critics in the Kremlin. (It wasn’t; Khrushchev was ousted two years later, in part, as his successors put it, for his “hare-brained scheme” in Cuba.)