“No. Not a word. All I know is what I’ve heard or read in the gossip and rumours in the media.”
“No gossip from your people?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“Why do you think they put the missiles there?”
“You know, Bobby, if we can answer that correctly we shall know what you have to do. For better or worse.”
“So tell us what your assessment is as to why they put the missiles in Cuba.” He paused. “Or do you need time to think about it?”
“No. I don’t think so. Maybe we should talk about it.”
“Go ahead, Andy. We need somebody who can see the other side of the coin.”
“Well, if you analyse the situation there can be only two reasons for them doing it. The first is that they really do want an excuse for a war. The second is that it’s done out of weakness.”
“How could such an aggressive move be a sign of weakness?”
“In situations like this you have to sometimes ignore the deed because the motive is more important.”
“So what’s the motive, Andy?”
His conversation with Lensky seemed almost designed to answer Kennedy’s question. After a few moments to collect his thoughts he said, “I think this episode is done for internal, domestic reasons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Put yourself in Khrushchev’s place. The Soviet economy is crumbling, huge grain harvests are rotting on farms because there’s no transport and no distribution system that works. There’s a low standard of living and even if people save a few roubles there’s nothing they can buy. There’s quite open bribery and corruption by Party officials at all levels. The armed forces raise hell for more money for themselves and point out that they are years behind the American build-up of arms. And on top of all that the old China-hands in the Party are accusing you of being a traitor.” Aarons paused. “It took real courage for Khrushchev to denounce Stalin and what he had done. He has always had a genuine wish for reforming the system but it’s too top-heavy. Nobody can change it. If you tried, the hard-liners would stop you.”
“Go on, Andy.”
“So what do you do to take people’s attention away from your failures? How do you show that you are still a super-power? How do you please the military? You challenge the other super-power. You put nuclear warheads in its backyard. There are plenty of other places you could put them that threaten the United States. But they may not react to a threat a thousand miles away. But a threat from Cuba would be intolerable. And if the USA raises hell in the UN Security Council you point out that they have nuclear weapons in Turkey, the Soviet Union’s backyard.”
“You think this is why they’re doing this?”
Aarons shrugged. “More or less.”
“All this just to get us to move our nuclear warheads out of Turkey?”
“It’s not so small a victory. Every ally you have would know that when the chips were on the table the Americans would walk out on them if it was in their interest to do so. You could find that your position in NATO was very uncomfortable. The French would make much of it. They’ve always said that America was an unreliable ally.”
“And you would recommend that we pull the missiles out of Turkey?”
“Not at all. If I were President—which God forbid—I would do no deals at all. Neither open deals nor secret deals.”
“What would you do?”
“I’d threaten Khrushchev that unless the missiles were removed we would remove them ourselves.”
“Do you think he would back down?”
“He would be angry about having to do it but yes, he would do it. He’s a gambler. The least he comes out with is that the world knows that the Soviet Union has to be reckoned with.”
“So which of our solutions do you go along with?”
“You’re right to have the President tell the American people and the rest of the world what the Soviets are doing. That will shock Moscow. Tell of the assurances that Moscow has given you that there are no missiles in Cuba. You mount a naval blockade of Cuba and you give Khrushchev a date by which time the missiles have to leave Cuba for the Soviet Union.”
“Or?”
“Or you will remove them yourselves.”
“And if they call us on that?”
Aarons shrugged. “I think you could deal with Cuba in a couple of days. Logistics would prevent the Soviet Union from doing anything.”
Kennedy sat looking at Aarons and then he said, “Tell me, Andy, if your people in Moscow asked you what to do about something we had done, would you advise them too?”
“If what you were doing was aggressive and likely to lead to war then yes—I’d tell them how I felt they could stop you.”
Kennedy looked at Malloy, “Anything else?”
“No. We’ll be at the hotel if you want us.”
“I think the President might want to talk to you tomorrow before he finalises his decisions and drafts his TV address.”
“Whatever he wants, Bobby.”
Malloy had taken Aarons to dinner and then on to a late showing at a cinema of Advise and Consent. He had chatted on personal things to Tania on the phone and then gone to bed.
Malloy was called to the telephone as they ate a late breakfast. When he came back he said that John F wanted to see them at 4 p.m.
The hotel was in a street with Victorian row-houses and shops and foreign embassies. There were two bookshops and Aarons had bought a copy of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Malloy had bought him the new volume of Pasternak’s poems, In the interlude.
It was still a sunny October and they had coffee and a snack in a small café near the hotel. Back in the suite that Malloy had taken for them they listened to the radio
