Existing comment:
Wednesday, October 24:
John McCone reported the following intelligence:
-- 22 Soviet ships were headed to Cuba; 3 of them had hatches large enough to hold missiles
-- Three of four Soviet submarines were in the Atlantic Ocean, nearby
-- Construction on the missile sites in Cuba was not only progressing, but accelerating; construction on buildings to store nuclear material was proceeding rapidly.
At 10am Wednesday morning, as the quarantine went into effect, the Ex Comm assembled in the Cabinet Room to discuss how, exactly, it would be implemented. Secretary of Defense McNamara reported that two Soviet ships were approaching the quarantine line; one of them -- the Kimovsk -- had hatches large enough to hold missiles and would be targeted for interception by the USS Essex near the quarantine line before noon. Even more ominously, he reported the presence of Soviet submarines that had the ability to sink a US warship. The submarines should be dealt with, he argued, before the Navy attempted to intercept the Soviet ship. McNamara proposed a series of antisubmarine tactics to force the submarines to surface and, as much as the President wanted to avoid hostilities against a Soviet submarine, he approved the use of small explosive "depth charges." Robert Kennedy later described this conversion as one of the tensest moments of the crisis.
In the middle of this discussion, the Ex Comm received word that six of the Soviet ships identified as being "in Cuban waters," had either stopped or reversed course, and the President ordered the USS Essex to put a hold on her plans to intercept the Soviet ship. The plan to harass the Soviet submarines with "warning depth charges," however, did proceed. |