JFK Page #2

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

Khrushchev, Kennedy, Castro on television, meetings with

Cabinet, Russian vessels in Caribbean, U.S. nuclear bases on

alert, civilians going to underground safe areas... the

Russian ship turning around, the country smiling...

VOICE 5

In October 1962, the world comes to

the brink of nuclear war when Kennedy

quarantines Cuba after announcing

the presence of offensive Soviet

nuclear missiles 90 miles off American

shores. The Joint Chiefs of Staff

and the CIA call for an invasion.

Kennedy refuses. Soviet ships with

more missiles sail towards the island,

but at the last moment turn back.

The world breathes with relief but

backstage in Washington, rumors abound

that J.F.K. has cut a secret deal

with Russian Premier Khrushchev not

to invade Cuba in return for a Russian

withdrawal of missiles. Suspicions

abound that Kennedy is "soft on

Communism."

NUCLEAR TEST BAN IMAGERY

Closing down Cuban Camps, McNamara speaking, Khrushchev and

Kennedy, the "hot line" telephone system inaugurated, Kennedy

with Jackie and children sailing off Cape Cod... Vietnam

introduction, early shots, Green Berets, counterinsurgency

programs, De Lansdale, leading up to the Test Ban signings...

then J.F.K. at American University, June 10, 1963.

VOICE 6

In the ensuing months, Kennedy clamps

down on Cuban exile activities,

closing training camps, restricting

covert operations, prohibiting

shipment of weapons out of the

country. The covert arm of the CIA

nevertheless continues its plan to

assassinate Castor... In March '63,

Kennedy announces drastic cuts in

the defense budget. In November

1963, he orders the withdrawal by

Christmas of the first 1000 troops

of the 16,000 stationed in Vietnam.

He tells several of his intimates

that he will withdraw all Vietnam

troops after the '64 election, saying

to the Assistant Secretary of State,

Roger Hilsman, "The Bay of Pigs has

taught me one, not to trust generals

or the CIA, and two, that if the

American people do not want to use

American troops to remove a Communist

regime 90 miles from our coast, how

can I ask them to use troops to remove

a Communist regime 9,000 miles

away?"... Finally, in August 1963,

over the objections of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff, the United States,

Great Britain and the Soviet Union

sign a treaty banning nuclear bomb

tests in the atmosphere, underwater

and in space... Early that fateful

summer, Kennedy speaks of his new

vision at American University in

Washington.

JFK:

What kind of peace do we seek? Not

a pax Americana enforced on the world

by American weapons of war... We

must re-examine our own attitudes

towards the Soviet Union... If we

cannot now end our differences at

least we can help make the world

safe for diversity. For, in the

final analysis, our most basic link

is that we all inhabit this small

planet. We all breathe the same

air. We all cherish our children's

future. And we are all mortal...

CONCLUDING KENNEDY IMAGERY

Diplomats at the United Nations... Adlai Stevenson, Castor...

Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (a snatch of

his "I Have a Dream" speech)... Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa

going at it... U.S. Steel Chairman's remarks in the steel

face-off, men going to courtrooms with briefcases,... Teddy

Kennedy, Rose, Joe, the Kennedy family, all teeth and good

looks... and of course John campaigning, always campaigning,

shaking hands, smiling, that supremely warm smile and sense

of grace and ability to convey to crowds their oneness with

him... forever... culminating in the more specific Texas

shots... with Jackie in San Antonio, and Houston... then at

Fort Worth... then at Love Field moving through the clouds

toward the Dallas/Forth Worth plain which suddenly breaks

into view as we descend...

LOUISIANA HIGHWAY - DAY (1963)

A moving car carrying two Cuban males disgorges a rumpled,

screaming woman, Rose Cheramie, a whore in her thirties,

lying there bleeding in the dirt. The car drives off.

HOSPITAL - DAY (1963)

We see Rose, badly cut but quite lucid, trying to reason

with a policeman, Lt. Fruge, and a doctor - in a remote black-

and-white documentary.

ROSE:

They're going up to Dallas... to

whack Kennedy. Friday the 22nd,

that's when they're going to do it.

In Dealey Plaza. They're gonna whack

him! You gotta call somebody, these

are serious f***in' guys.

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