Date

Oct 29, 1962

Description

Several statements that John F. Kennedy made during the fall of 1962 conveyed nuclear taboo thinking. On 29 October 1962, Kennedy met with the Joint Chiefs for discussions of the Cuban situation. One of them, Marine Corps Commandant General David Shoup raised the prospect of tactical nuclear weapons use, if somehow the Cubans got control of the weapons that the Soviets had deployed to the island. Shoup saw a nuclear war starting if tactical nuclear weapons were used and Kennedy agreed that "in extremis" everybody would use them. What particularly worried him was that "the decision to use any kind of a nuclear weapon, even the tactical ones, presents such a risk of it getting out of control so quickly...." Shoup interrupted him and Kennedy did not complete the sentence, but the direction of his thinking was clear as was his Eisenhower-type assumption that using nuclear weapons represented crossing a line.

Document published in following posting(s):

U.S. Presidents and the Nuclear Taboo

Nov 30, 2017

"11:30-12:45 P.M. Meeting on the Military Situation in Cuba," 29 October 1962, in David Coleman, editor, The Presidential Recordings John F. Kennedy The Winds of Change Volume Four October 29-November 7, 1962 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2016), excerpt, pages 36-37