Originally Posted By: DB


I don't think there is anyone 1 thing that caused the JFK hit, it was a bunch of things that lead to it but the Cuban missile crisis was likely that broke the back. You have RFK on tape saying a military coup of JFK was imminent to the Russian DC ambassador, plus JFK agreed never to invade Cuba which was deplorable to the hard core anti communists in intelligence, that and the anti nuclear agreement he signed with Russia in 1963 was probably the icing on the cake.

Intelligence/Military wanted to defeat communism and Russia and Cuba militarily and if that involved nukes so be it . JFK was wanted to solve our issues diplomatically if possible and was desperate to avoid a nuclear confrontation.

If you listen to his speeches, his biggest concern was a nuclear war due to "miscalculation" and in Oct 1962 we were right there, must have been scary times.


Jfk ended the cuban crisis by pledging not to invade cuba and removing missiles in Turkey. The pledge not to invade cuba didn't sit well with a lot of people. Also, missile sites in cuba were not inspected by UN to make sure they were really gone. We took it largely on faith they were removed. It was a victory for peace, but not everyone saw it that way.

I think there were some who viewed the crisis as an "i told you so" moment. They wanted Eisenhower or Jfk to invade cuba much earlier. I was unaware of RFK's statements. It sounds like he was trying to make a bluff to scare the soviets to make a peace deal and not something he believed would actually happen.