this is the secretary of defense of the United States Robert mcnamer his Department absorbs 10% of the national income of this country and over half of every tax dollar his job has been called the toughest in Washington and mcamera is the most controversial figure that has ever held the job Walder Lipman calls not only the best Secretary of Defense but the first one who ever asserted civilian control over the military his critics call him a con man an IBM machine with legs an arrogant dictator [Music] [Applause] [Music] Mr secretary I noticed in several cabinet offices that little silver calendar thing there can you explain that yes this uh was given by President Kennedy on the calendar are engraved the dates October 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 and finally 28 were the dates when we literally Look Down the Gun Barrel into nuclear war [Music] [Music] [Music] under our cloak of Deceit the Soviet Union introduced nuclear missiles into Cuba targeting 90 million Americans [Music] the CIA said the WarHeads had not been delivered yet they thought 20 were coming on a ship named the P taba we mobilized 180,000 troops the first day's Air Attack was planned at 1080 sories a huge Air Attack the next 24 hours we need to do we need to do two kind of things first we need to devolve a specific stri plan second thing we have to do is to consider the consequence I I don't know quite what kind of a world we live in we start human how do we stop at that point I don't know the answer to this chances of it becoming a much broader St a l increased as you step up to the by the D of the United States Kennedy was trying to keep us out of War I was trying to help him keep us out of War and general Curtis lame whom I served under as a matter of fact in World War II was saying let's go in let's totally destroy Cuba [Music] on that critical Saturday October 27th we had two Cru Chef messages in front of us one had come in Friday night and it was it had been dictated by a man who was either drunk or under tremendous stress basically he said if you'll guarantee you won't invade Cuba we'll take the missiles out then before we could respond we had a second message that in been dictated by a bunch of hardliners and it said in effect if you attack we're prepared to confront you with masses of military power so what to do we had this I'll call it the soft message and the hard message at the elbow of President Kennedy was Tommy Thompson former US ambassador to Moscow he and Jane his wife had literally lived with Kev and his wife upon occasion Tommy Thompson said Mr President I urge you to respond to the soft message the president said to Tommy we can't do that it'll get us nowhere Tommy said Mr President you're wrong now that takes a lot of guts we're not going to get these weapons out of probably Anyway by negotiation I no agreement in Thompson's mind was this thought kushev has gotten himself in a hell of effects he would then think to himself my God if I can get out of this with a deal that that I can say to the Russian people Kennedy was going to destroy Castro and I prevented it Tompson knowing kusf as he did thought crucia will accept that and Thompson was right that's what I call empathy we must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes just to understand the thoughts that lie behind their decisions and their actions Cru Chef's advisors were saying there can be no deal unless you somewhat reduce the pressure on us when you ask us to reduce the pressure on you also we had attempted to invade CU well with the Bay of Pigs that undoubtedly influenced their thinking I I think that's correct but more importantly from a Cuban and a Russian point of view they knew what in a sense I really didn't know we attempted to assassinate Castro under eisenhauer and under Kennedy and later under Johnson and in addition to that major voices in the US were calling for invasion in the first message kusf said this we and you ought not pull on the ends of a rope which you have tied the knots of War because the more the two of us [Music] pulled the tighter the knot will be tired and then it will be necessary to cut that knot and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you I have participated in two Wars and know that war ends when it has rolled through cities and Villages everywhere sewing death and Destruction for such is the logic of War if people do not display wisdom they will Clash like blind moles and then Mutual Annihilation will commence [Music] oh [Music] [Music]