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American Morning

Look Back at Cuban Missile Crisis

Aired October 14, 2002 - 08:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Forty years ago today, an American U2 spy plane over Cuba took photographs that would push the world to the brink of nuclear war. The photographs revealed secret Soviet weapons on the island, and then triggered a showdown of superpowers. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, today, as the world now ponders war with Iraq, our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield takes back to that day, that week, for that matter, in October. How real was the threat of all out war?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: It was very real. We certainly felt it. I remember an instructor at the college saying, now, for next Thursday, if there is a next Thursday. Rather startling remark. And President Kennedy's speech to the nation made it clear he was prepared for war. He said the price of freedom is always high, but Americans have always been willing to pay it.

But the most chilling line when he said is any of those missiles are fired at any U.S. or ally territory will mean all-out nuclear war with Moscow. That, Bill, got our attention.

HEMMER: We have seen this invoked in a the past couple of months, in fact. How is that crisis being played out in terms of relevance?

GREENFIELD: Both sides on the Iraqi debate could use it. When President Bush gave his speech last Monday night, this is how he described President Kennedy's actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We no longer live in a world, he said, where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation security to constitute maximum peril.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Now, on the other hand, when Ted Kennedy described the Cuban Missile Crisis, as he did in a speech last month, he drew a very different lesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Some, in the highest councils of government, urge an immediate unilateral strike. Instead, United States took its case to the United Nations, won the endorsement of the organization of American states, and brought along even our most skeptical allies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Now, one thing that is particularly striking is how much emphasis president Kennedy laid on court of public opinion. The U.N. Security Council became a very dramatic confrontation between the U.S. ambassador there, Adlai Stevenson, and his Soviet counterpart.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADLAI STEVENSON, U.S. AMBASSADOR: Do you, ambassador Zoren (ph), deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will have your answer in due course.

STEVENSON: I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that is your decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: That was probably one of the most memorable moments. Now the Bush administration, I must say, has also used aerial photos, the way President Kennedy did, satellite photos, to show that Iraq may be at work rebuilding its nuclear facilities, and they clearly did go to the U.N. They want the U.N. resolution, Bill, to give them that kind of cache.

HEMMER: Recently, Donald Rumsfeld has indicated that he believes the blockade was, in essence, a preemptive strike by JFK, then President Kennedy. Is there, at this point, thought that indeed there is justification based on the action of 40 years ago to try and work some sort of preemption today?

GREENFIELD: It's interesting how both sides want to use this. That's what Donald Rumsfeld said. President Kennedy called it a quarantine, rather than a blockade, because a blockade is an act of war, but many of those who served with President Kennedy don't share Rumsfeld's view.

First, President Kennedy rejected strong advice from military advisers and from hawks that he take the missiles out by force, just skip the diplomacy and go in. Kennedy just thought the consequences were simply to severe, namely, nuclear war.

Second, as part of the settlement, he publicly pledged not to invade Cuba, not to institute what we call regime change, and we now know his brother Robert Kennedy secretly set a deal with the Soviets, that said, look, don't mention this publicly, but in six months, we'll pull these U.S. missiles, the Jupiter missiles, out of Turkey.

I think the real point, when you try to use historical analogies, you only go so far. Iraq is not a nuclear superpower. There is no risk of all-out nuclear war. On the other hands, Soviet offensive weapons in Cuba, 90 miles from America, were clearly a more imminent direct clear and present threat than whatever Iraq might have.

HEMMER: Ninety miles from Florida.

GREENFIELD: Ninety miles from our shore.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Great look back. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 14, 2002 - 08:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Forty years ago today, an American U2 spy plane over Cuba took photographs that would push the world to the brink of nuclear war. The photographs revealed secret Soviet weapons on the island, and then triggered a showdown of superpowers. It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, today, as the world now ponders war with Iraq, our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield takes back to that day, that week, for that matter, in October. How real was the threat of all out war?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: It was very real. We certainly felt it. I remember an instructor at the college saying, now, for next Thursday, if there is a next Thursday. Rather startling remark. And President Kennedy's speech to the nation made it clear he was prepared for war. He said the price of freedom is always high, but Americans have always been willing to pay it.

But the most chilling line when he said is any of those missiles are fired at any U.S. or ally territory will mean all-out nuclear war with Moscow. That, Bill, got our attention.

HEMMER: We have seen this invoked in a the past couple of months, in fact. How is that crisis being played out in terms of relevance?

GREENFIELD: Both sides on the Iraqi debate could use it. When President Bush gave his speech last Monday night, this is how he described President Kennedy's actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We no longer live in a world, he said, where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nation security to constitute maximum peril.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Now, on the other hand, when Ted Kennedy described the Cuban Missile Crisis, as he did in a speech last month, he drew a very different lesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Some, in the highest councils of government, urge an immediate unilateral strike. Instead, United States took its case to the United Nations, won the endorsement of the organization of American states, and brought along even our most skeptical allies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: Now, one thing that is particularly striking is how much emphasis president Kennedy laid on court of public opinion. The U.N. Security Council became a very dramatic confrontation between the U.S. ambassador there, Adlai Stevenson, and his Soviet counterpart.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADLAI STEVENSON, U.S. AMBASSADOR: Do you, ambassador Zoren (ph), deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will have your answer in due course.

STEVENSON: I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that is your decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GREENFIELD: That was probably one of the most memorable moments. Now the Bush administration, I must say, has also used aerial photos, the way President Kennedy did, satellite photos, to show that Iraq may be at work rebuilding its nuclear facilities, and they clearly did go to the U.N. They want the U.N. resolution, Bill, to give them that kind of cache.

HEMMER: Recently, Donald Rumsfeld has indicated that he believes the blockade was, in essence, a preemptive strike by JFK, then President Kennedy. Is there, at this point, thought that indeed there is justification based on the action of 40 years ago to try and work some sort of preemption today?

GREENFIELD: It's interesting how both sides want to use this. That's what Donald Rumsfeld said. President Kennedy called it a quarantine, rather than a blockade, because a blockade is an act of war, but many of those who served with President Kennedy don't share Rumsfeld's view.

First, President Kennedy rejected strong advice from military advisers and from hawks that he take the missiles out by force, just skip the diplomacy and go in. Kennedy just thought the consequences were simply to severe, namely, nuclear war.

Second, as part of the settlement, he publicly pledged not to invade Cuba, not to institute what we call regime change, and we now know his brother Robert Kennedy secretly set a deal with the Soviets, that said, look, don't mention this publicly, but in six months, we'll pull these U.S. missiles, the Jupiter missiles, out of Turkey.

I think the real point, when you try to use historical analogies, you only go so far. Iraq is not a nuclear superpower. There is no risk of all-out nuclear war. On the other hands, Soviet offensive weapons in Cuba, 90 miles from America, were clearly a more imminent direct clear and present threat than whatever Iraq might have.

HEMMER: Ninety miles from Florida.

GREENFIELD: Ninety miles from our shore.

HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Great look back. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com