The United States had a huge problem on its hands in dealing with the communist forces in the South. In the early hours of the morning, on October 15, 1962, White House officials discovered that the Soviets and Cubans were constructing numerous medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles in Cuba. According to an article entitled Secret Heroes by Michael Dobbs, President Kennedy and his board received these top secret photographs from an American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Richard Heyser, late on October 14, and the plane is believed to have found the nuclear weapons in the outskirts of a small city named San Cristobal (“Secret Heroes,” par. 1-2). This was a huge breakthrough for the group because they now had evidence that the communists were planning a surprise combined effort against the United States. Although the American military had hundreds of these ballistic missiles, their deepest fears on the communists had come true, and it was believed that they wanted to act upon Joint Resolution 230 immediately. They also believed that they could not let this conflict get too far out of hand and must not let these findings get anywhere near the public because they would only cause more suspicion and chaos from the American people. It was also unknown to the fifteen men how long the communists had been creating and constructing these nuclear weapons because they had only commissioned the U-2 spy planes to start flying over Cuba on October 14. Hopefully, the men believed that this could be the beginning of the end and wished that President Kennedy could negotiate with the dangerous communists in Cuba.
Actual Blog Date: May 2, 2011
Historical Date: October 15, 1962
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