>> And this is what we saw. We saw eight missiles, they're 65 feet lonG.
>> Oliver: This is not a surface to air missile.
>> Much too big. This doesn't belong in this area.
>> Oliver: The U.S. Now had
proof that khrushchev placed
medium range missiles with
nuclear warheads in cuba.
The president, sick and
weakened from his ongoing
battle with addison's disease
now faced his most serious
crisis, the possibility of
nuclear war.
>> What happens then is for six days the united states government does something that it rarely does, it met it secret.
>> Oliver: Kennedy's executive committee considered different response toss the e nuclear provocation.
>> On october 21st the
president decides that the
quarantine is the way he's
going to go.
>> Oliver: October 22nd, eight
days after richard heiser's
u-2 flight, kennedy prepared
to reveal to the nation and
the world that we knew the
soviets had nuclear missiles
in cuba.
In moscow, it was well past
midnight.
Inside the kremlin, khrushchev
and his soviet military waited
uneasily for jfk's speecH.
>> Khrushchev is the hawk and he says, look, we can't lose cuba. He turns to his colleagu <