In a discussion caught on his secretly recorded White House tapes, President Kennedy thinks through the problem of what kind of Soviet military presence in Cuba the United States could and could not live with. The Cuban Missile Crisis ostensibly ended on October 28, 1962. On that day, Soviet Premier…

Here’s an excuse worth trying. — Next time you need an excuse for being late for a meeting with the President, try this one. It’s the one U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson used when he arrived late to an important December 17, 1962 ExComm meeting at the White House. It was caught on…

In December 1962, the situation in the Congo was deteriorating. Moise Tshombe was leading a secessionist movement for the Katanga, an area rich in natural resources and the base of massive European mining interests. …

We have so far gotten the missiles out, we think; we’re not sure. The Joint Chiefs of Staff met with President Kennedy in the Oval Office on November 16, 1962, to update him on the military situation in Cuba. The crisis might have been over, but there was much unfinished…

In a private conversation captured on JFK’s secret White House tapes in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, advisers wonder aloud whether the Soviets might keep nuclear warheads in Cuba. — The Cuban Missile Crisis had just passed. Only 12 days earlier, it had been touch and go as to whether nuclear war would break out. Ultimately, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had caved and promised to remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba. But 12 days later, that’s all it remained —…

In this excerpt from newly published transcripts of JFK’s secret White House tapes, JFK and his advisers discuss the politics of a test ban agreement and the possibility of a new summit meeting with Khrushchev. When the United States and Soviet Union negotiated arms control in the late-1950s and early-1960s to try to ban or limit nuclear tests in an effort to slow down the arms race, one of the most difficult, recurring sticking points was making sure that each side stuck to the terms…

It’s a popular quote about the Cuban Missile Crisis. But where did it come from? — A quote by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. is often used in talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis. And it’s easy to see why — it’s a pithy, evocative quote. He described the crisis as “the most dangerous moment in human history.” But where and when did he say it? It…

You don’t hear much about him, but U Thant played a crucial role in the United Nations. As head of the United Nations, be inserted himself into the US-Soviet crisis in an effort to facilitate negotiations for a peaceful resolution. But at the time he was only the acting secretary-general. — On November 30, 1962, the United Nations voted unanimously to appoint 53-year-old Burmese diplomat U Thant to a full four-year term as Secretary General of the United Nations. The vote in the General Assembly was 109 to 0, with Honduras absent.1

While much of the world was focused on the Cuban Missile Crisis, half-way around the world two countries, with a combined total of a billion people — or about a third of the world’s population — were at war. — India and China had been arguing about two sections of shared border for years. The disputed borders combined for a total of about 2,000 miles. In the west, the Chinese claimed territory in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir and Western Tibet. In the East, a line drawn by…