Telephone record of a conversation between Harold Macmillan and John F. Kennedy, part two

Transcript

Prime Minister:

Well what do you think the next step will have to be- to have some kind of conference with him or not?

President Kennedy:

What we want to do is get these weapons out of Cuba. The Castro regime is not the issue or the Communists. We have had no plans to invade Cuba, in fact, as you know, I have taken the position that we should not, but we want to get these missiles out of Cuba. Now I don’t know what kind of negotiation we could go on which would permit some exchange or not, but that of course should be the object of our policy.

Prime Minister:

Yes. What worries me- I’ll be frank with you- having a sort of dragging-on position. If you occupied Cuba that’s one thing. In my long experience we’ve always found that our weakness has been when we’ve not acted with sufficient strength to start with. However we’ve got to wait now and see what the Russian reactions are. Then we must get into very close touch. They may react in words, by arguing at the United Nations and all the points that I made in my message to you or they may react in deeds-either in the Caribbean area or in Berlin or elsewhere. But they must be ready to decide whether we’re going to meet that by demanding a Conference and settle the whole thing up or whether we’re going to force the issue by warlike measures. And I hope that we can keep on very close touch as to what the next stage is the moment we see the Russian reaction.

President Kennedy:

Well I’m aware, Prime Minister, that the action we’re taking is not complete force and does not immediately solve the problem but the alternative which is the series of air strikes and the invasion of Cuba, which we may have to do, seems to me placing such a burden on us and invited him so directly into Berlin, that we are rather reluctant to do that unless it’s necessary particularly when we can’t do t for at least a week because we have to assemble our vessels. So that if we obviously had a sufficient force on hand and could take Cuba tonight that would be very nice but we don’t have that force. Now we may come to this invasion by the end of the week but we are assembling our forces in preparation for it. But what we’re attempting to do is to begin this escalation in a way that lessens the chance of a seizure of Berlin or World War III. Now we may not be able to prevent either but at least we have served notice on him that we cannot accept the procedure and the actions which he carried out.

Prime Minister:

Yes, I very much appreciate that and I have just got a message from David who has explained to me his talk with you and this very valuable. I think all we can do now is just to wait for the reactions and if you would get in direct touch with me or through David Gore so that we are actually working together all the time, it’s very important. Meanwhile may I ask you- have you been in direct touch with Khrushchev- have you had a telephone talk with him or anything like that?

President Kennedy:

No I haven’t. I sent him a letter about an hour ago telling him what we were going to do. As I said in my speech about his assurances, he played a double game. You remember that he kept saying he was coming over here after the election and would do nothing to disturb the situation until after the election. He said that the weapons were defensive, that they weren’t moving any missiles

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