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The Bomb

Kennedy and Khrushchev: 6. Kennedy’s move

The Bomb

BBC

History

4.42K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Pressure is building on President Kennedy to order a military strike on the newly discovered nuclear missile site on Cuba. But JFK wonders whether it’s better to keep the discovery a secret from Premier Khrushchev – for now. Meanwhile, the Washington press grows suspicious of all the late-night activity at the White House. This is the personal and political story of the Cuban Missile Crisis, told by NIna Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy.

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

0:10.0

Sagwa La Grande, the north coast of Cuba.

0:14.5

We will defend Cuba as our motherland, reads a banner fixed to a poll.

0:21.8

Soldiers from the 79th Missile Regiment are celebrating.

0:25.9

The regiment is the first in Cuba to be combat ready.

0:30.6

Despite intense heat and humidity, they have built bridges, gravel roads, warehouses,

0:38.5

and eight missile launchers are in place,

0:41.4

next to concrete launching pads.

0:44.6

The R-12s, or medium-range ballistic missiles,

0:48.4

are lying on trucks close by, covered by canvas.

1:04.0

It's Saturday, October 20th, 1962. Ten hours. That's the time it takes to deliver the nuclear warheads from a bunker in central Cuba to the launch site at Sagual-A-Grande.

1:11.6

Then, armed with their warheads, the missiles can reach bomb, Kennedy and Khrushchev.

1:33.7

With me, Nina Khrushcheva.

1:36.2

And me, Max Kennedy.

1:39.4

Episode 6, Kennedy's move.

1:47.1

Overlooking the waterfront in Boston in the United States

1:51.0

stands the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, built in his memory.

1:55.6

It's an archive, research center, and museum.

1:59.0

And there's a small exhibition of objects telling the story of the

2:03.1

grueling days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. I'm standing in front of a little desk paperweight.

2:13.7

It's about five inches by five inches square piece of red mahogany.

2:20.6

And there's a small silver calendar, an ordinary day calendar of October 1962 with 13 days that

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