Cuban Missile Crisis: the Governments
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2017
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On October 16th 1962 the American president, John F Kennedy, received news that the Soviets were secretly deploying nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba. In the two weeks that followed, the Cuban Missile crisis took the world to the brink of nuclear war. Louise Hidalgo has been listening back through the BBC's archives to some of those at the centre of the crisis in Washington and Moscow.
Picture: President Kennedy goes on national television to tell the American public about the Soviet nuclear missile deployment and announces a strategic blockade of Cuba, 22nd October 1962 (Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of our history programme Witness. |
| 0:40.0 | I'm Louise Adaggo and today I'm taking you back to October 1962 when for two |
| 0:45.7 | four weeks the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. I've been listening back |
| 0:50.6 | through the BBC's archives to some of those in Washington |
| 0:53.8 | and in Moscow who were at the center of the Cuban missile crisis. |
| 0:59.7 | It's October 16,th, 1962 845 a.m. and in the White House the US President John F. Kennedy is being given disturbing news. |
| 1:11.0 | Aerial photographs shot by a US spy plane |
| 1:15.0 | show the Soviet Union has secretly been deploying nuclear missiles |
| 1:19.0 | on the island of Cuba. |
| 1:21.0 | The most dangerous moment of the Cold War has begun. |
| 1:27.0 | The discussions at the White House that morning were recorded. |
| 1:32.0 | Among those present was President Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. |
| 1:37.6 | I think all of us were shocked by the Soviet action because we recognized that we were going to have to respond in |
| 1:44.9 | ways which initially we couldn't agree on and we also recognized that this was a |
| 1:50.7 | potential military conflict between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, not just |
| 1:54.9 | between the US and the Soviet Union. |
... |
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