US Presidency
1964

It is noteven the economic problem and it is not the Negro problem. The only problem that faces you is whether you are going to liveor die, and whether your family is going to live or die. I sat through 37 meetings of the National Security Council duringthe Cuban crisis. I never left home in the morning but what I realized I mightnot ever see her again that day. She might not be there or I might not bethere. I sat at that table with the most trained generals and admirals we had, with four and five stars, and their war maps were out, and they took us fromthis stage to that stage, and we had our fleet moving, and we had our planes inthe sky, and we had them loaded with our bombs. And we knew they had theirmissiles pointing at us. And the coolest man in that room, whose thumb was sitting therethat could be put on the button, was the Commander in Chief, John FitzgeraldKennedy, who had been abused all over that country.