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Cuban
Missile Address (1962)
by John
F. Kennedy
...........This
urgent transformation of Cuba into
an important strategic base-by the
presence
of these large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons
of sudden
mass
destruction constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security
of all the
Americas,
in flagrant and deliberate defiance of the Rio
Pact of 1947, the
traditions
of this Nation and hemisphere,
the joint resolution of the 87th
Congress,
the Charter of the United Nations,
and my own public warnings to
the
Soviets on September 4 and 13- This
action also contradicts the repeated
assurances
of Soviet spokesmen, both
publicly and privately delivered, that
the
arms buildup in Cuba would retain its original
defensive character, and
that
the Soviet Union had no need or desire to
station strategic missiles on the
territory
of any other nation...........
But this secret, swift, and extraordinary
buildup of Communist missiles-in an
area
well known to have a special and historical
relationship to the United States
and
the nations of the Western Hemisphere,
in violation of Soviet assurances,
and
in defiance of American and hemispheric
policy-this sudden, clandestine
decision
to station strategic weapons for the first time
outside of Soviet soil- is a
deliberately
provocative and unjustified change in the status
quo which cannot
be accepted
by this country, if our courage and our
commitments are ever to
be trusted
again by either friend or foe.
The 1930's taught us a clear lesson:
aggressive conduct, if allowed to go
unchecked
and unchallenged, ultimately leads to
war. This nation is
opposed
to war. We are also
true to our word. Our unswerving
objective,
therefore,
must be to prevent the use of
these missiles against this or any other
country,
and to secure their withdrawal
or elimination from the Western
Hemisphere...........
