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The Joint Chiefs of Staff argue for bombing the missile sites, followed by an invasion. Kennedy leaves for a campaign trip while the ExComm keeps debating.

• Four Soviet Foxtrot submarines are heading for the Caribbean.
• Navy planners draft a blockade plan.

The Joint Chiefs push for an air strike (19 October 1962)

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko tells Kennedy that Soviet aid to Cuba is purely defensive. Kennedy, who has the photos, does not reveal what he knows.

• The ExComm narrows the options to an air strike or a naval blockade.
• Soviet ships keep their course toward Cuba.

Gromyko meets Kennedy (18 October 1962)

Kennedy returns to Washington, citing a cold, and chooses a naval blockade, called a "quarantine" because a blockade is an act of war. The air strike stays as a fallback.

• The quarantine will stop offensive weapons only, not food or fuel.
• Ships of the Second Fleet get ready to sail.

Kennedy picks the blockade (20 October 1962)

A 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. The US answered with a naval quarantine of the island; the crisis ended when Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and, secretly, the removal of US missiles from Turkey.

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The Joint Chiefs push for an air strike (19 October 1962)

Process details

Map

Impact summary