Chapter 45: Playing Politics with Nuclear Weapons

Pawley asserts that his underground network detects missiles in Cuba and that Kennedy waited for a politically opportune moment to announce their presence. Pawley wants Cuba bombed. Kennedy negotiates a withdrawal of the missiles that Pawley contends weakens the United States. Pawley denounces President Kennedy in the newspapers and begins “to feel that time was running out for America.” Kennedy meets with the Bay of Pigs Brigade leaders and promises to return their flag to Cuba. Pawley is bitter about the promise and states, “The fate of Cuba and the maintenance of Soviet prestige in that part of the world preoccupied me even when I was busy conducting the affairs of state in Moscow and traveling to the other fraternal countries.”