Rare film footage, documents, and artifacts from 1962 crisis to be displayed

The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis with a special exhibit, The World On the Brink: John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, which opened Wednesday, October 1, 2002, and runs through Friday, May 15, 2003. The exhibit will feature original artifacts and images associated with the 13 days of the 1962 crisis.

A series of Kennedy Library forums, On the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis, is also scheduled to bring together former advisors to President Kennedy, former Soviet and Cuban officials, historians, scholars, and experts on international relations to discuss the crisis and its aftermath.

Of special interest will be a 20-minute film on the Cuban Missile Crisis, shown exclusively at the Kennedy Library. The film incorporates period news footage, interviews with President Kennedy, and tape-recorded excerpts from top-secret meetings between the president and his advisors.

Highlights of the exhibit will include:

* The first aerial reconnaissance photo of missile sites under construction, shown to President Kennedy on the morning of October 16, 1962, and marking the beginning of the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis

* The original copy of Proclamation 3504 (on loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) signed by President Kennedy at the White House and authorizing the naval blockade of Cuba

* Handwritten memos, notes, and scribbles created by President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy during meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council

* The correspondence exchanged between President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the USSR and Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party

* Jacqueline Kennedy’s commemorative Tiffany calendar of the thirteen days of October 1962, designed by President Kennedy and given to those closest to him during the Crisis

The Kennedy Library will also sponsor a series of forums, On the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis, this October. The participants will include:

* Sergei Khruschev, son of and advisor to Russian Premier Nikita Khruschev

* Robert McNamara, President Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense

* Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Special Assistant to President Kennedy

* Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel to President Kennedy

* Svetlana Savranskaya, Ph.D., editor of the Russian and East Bloc Archival Documents Database

* Julia Sweig, Ph.D., Cuba specialist and author of The Cuban Insurrection Declassified

* Sander Vanocur, NBC News White House correspondent

For more information on the forums, visit the Kennedy Library Web page at www.jfklibrary.org.