The World: A Family History of Humanity

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Khrushchev had been reading translations of articles by the powerful Washington Post columnist Walter Lippman, who had suggested a solution: removal of American missiles from Türkiye in return for removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. No journalist in history has ever been so influential. With this idea, Khrushchev sent a second less conciliatory letter to JFK, who dispatched his brother to discuss the plan with the Soviet ambassador. As the president relaxed somewhat, Special Assistant Dave Powers summoned his teenage lover, the intern Mimi. Yet though he chatted to her, JFK’s ‘expression was grave…even his quips had a half-hearted, funereal tone’: ‘I’d rather my children were red than dead,’ he said before sending her alone off to bed while he watched a movie, Roman Holiday.