October 27, 1962, also known as “Black Saturday," was the most dangerous day of the Cuban Missile Crisis as events began to spiral out of control. With two contrasting messages from Chairman Khrushchev, President Kennedy had to find a way to resolve the crisis or risk a nuclear war. Outside of the White House, the crisis took a fatal turn and war was expected to break out at any moment.
Featuring interviews and archive audio with George Anderson, Michael Dobbs, Roswell Gilpatric, Sir Max Hastings, Nina Khrushcheva, Fredrik Logevall, Robert McNamara, Tom Nichols, Serhii Plokhy, and Ted Sorensen.
View the transcript from this episode.
From the JFK Library Archives
View documents and photographs referenced in this episode.
From the JFK Library
JFK Library Forum: Thirteen Days: An Insider's Perspective, October 1, 2002 (via C-SPAN)
Additional Material
Office of the Historian: Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State, October 26, 1962
Archive of Foreign Policy, Russian Federation (AVP RF): Telegram from Fidel Castro to N. S. Khrushchev, October 26, 1962
Office of the Historian: Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 27, 1962
Miller Center: Meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 27, 1962, 10:05 am
Miller Center: Meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 27, 1962, 4:00 pm
Office of the Historian: Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Soviet Union, October 27, 1962, 8:05 pm
Open Vault from WGBH: Interview with Robert McNamara (1), February 20, 1986
Open Vault from WGBH: Interview with Roswell Gilpatric (2), March 7, 1986
Open Vault from WGBH: Interview with Ted Sorensen, March 7, 1986
Open Vault from WGBH: Interview with George Anderson, March 19, 1986
See full source list for this series.
Credits
Hosts and producers: Matt Porter and Jamie Richardson
Co-producer: Rick King
Supervisory Producer: Valerie Linson
Research Assistants: Sara Laroussi and Megan McKee
Independent Fact Checker: Ben Schafer
Thank you to The Miller Center at the University of Virginia for providing the White House tapes used in this series.
Thank you to JFK Library archives staff for assistance with researching and digitizing additional material.
Special thank you to Ambassador Caroline Kennedy for permission to use the audio from Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1964 oral history interview.
Podcast Art: Brian Kang
Music: Premium Beat by Shutterstock