Page 144 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

1. You would agree to remove these weapons systems from Cuba under appropriate United Nations observation and supervision; and undertake, with suitable safeguards, to halt the further introduction of such weapons systems into Cuba.

2. We, on our part, would agree--upon the establishment of adequate arrangements through the United Nations to ensure the carrying out and continuation of these commitments--(a) to remove promptly the quarantine arrangements now in effect and (b) to give assurances against an invasion of Cuba and I am confident that other nations of the Western Hemisphere would be prepared to do likewise.

The USA was accepting Khrushchev's first offer. But what about his second? Bobby and Sorensen agreed to say:

The effect of such a settlement on easing world tensions would enable us to work toward a more general arrangement regarding "other armaments" as proposed in your second letter.

It was not much, just a hint of a promise to discuss something, but it was probably the most that ExComm would allow.

George privately wondered how this could possibly be enough.

He gave his handwritten draft to one of the president's secretaries and asked her to get it typed. A few minutes later, Bobby was summoned to the Oval Office, where a smaller group was gathering: the president, Dean Rusk, Mac Bundy, and two or three others, with their closest aides. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was excluded: he was a smart political operator, in George's opinion, but his rough Texas manners grated on the refined Boston Kennedy brothers.

The president wanted Bobby to carry the letter personally to the Soviet ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin. Bobby and Dobrynin had had several informal meetings in the last few days. They did not much like one another, but they were able to speak frankly, and had formed a useful back channel that bypassed the Washington bureaucracy. In a face-to-face meeting, perhaps Bobby could expand on the hint of a promise to discuss the missiles in Turkey--without getting prior approval from ExComm.

Dean Rusk suggested that Bobby could go a little further with Dobrynin. In today's meetings it had become clear that no one really wanted the Jupiter missiles to remain in Turkey. From a strictly military point of view they were useless. The problem was cosmetic: the Turkish government and the other NATO allies would be angered if the USA traded those missiles in a Cuba settlement. Rusk suggested a solution that George thought was very smart. "Offer to pull the Jupiters out later--say, in five or six months' time," said Rusk. "Then we can do it quietly, with the agreement of our allies, and step up the Mediterranean activity of our nuclear-armed submarines to compensate. But the Soviets have to promise to keep that deal deadly secret."

It was a startling suggestion, but brilliant, George thought.

Everyone agreed with remarkable speed. ExComm d

iscussions had rambled all over the globe for most of the day, but this smaller group here in the Oval Office had suddenly become decisive. Bobby said to George: "Call Dobrynin." He looked at his watch, and George did the same: it was seven fifteen P.M. "Ask him to meet me at the Justice Department in half an hour," Bobby said.

The president added: "And release the letter to the press fifteen minutes later."

George stepped into the secretaries' office next to the Oval Office and picked up a phone. "Get me the Soviet embassy," he said to the switchboard operator.

The ambassador agreed instantly to the meeting.

George took the typed letter to Maria and told her the president wanted it released to the press at eight P.M.

She looked anxiously at her watch, then said: "Okay, girls, we'd better go to work."

Bobby and George left the White House and a car drove them the few blocks to the Justice Department. In the gloomy weekend lighting, the statues in the Great Hall seemed to watch the two men suspiciously. George explained to the security staff that an important visitor would shortly arrive to see Bobby.

They went up in the elevator. George thought Bobby looked exhausted, and undoubtedly he was. The corridors of the huge building echoed emptily. Bobby's cavernous office was dimly lit, but he did not bother to switch on more lamps. He slumped behind his wide desk and rubbed his eyes.

George looked out of the window at the streetlights. The center of Washington was a pretty park full of monuments and palaces, but the rest of it was a densely populated metropolis with five million residents, more than half of them black. Would the city be here this time tomorrow? George had seen pictures of Hiroshima: miles of buildings flattened to rubble, and burned and maimed survivors on the outskirts, staring with uncomprehending eyes at the unrecognizable world around them. Would Washington look like that in the morning?

Ambassador Dobrynin was shown in at exactly a quarter to eight. He was a bald man in his early forties, and he clearly relished his informal meetings with the president's brother.

"I want to lay out the current alarming situation the way the president sees it," Bobby said. "One of our planes has been shot down over Cuba and the pilot is dead."

"Your planes have no right to fly over Cuba," Dobrynin said quickly.

Bobby's discussions with Dobrynin could be combative, but today the attorney general was in a different mood. "I want you to understand the political realities," he said. "There is now strong pressure on the president to respond with fire. We can't stop these overflights: it's the only way we can check the state of construction of your missile bases. But if the Cubans shoot at our planes, we're going to shoot back."

Bobby told Dobrynin what was in the letter from President Kennedy to Secretary Khrushchev.

"And what about Turkey?" Dobrynin said sharply.

Bobby replied carefully. "If that is the only obstacle to achieving the regulation I mentioned earlier, the president doesn't see any insurmountable difficulties. The greatest difficulty for the president is the public discussion of the issue. If such a decision were announced now it would tear NATO apart. We need four to five months to remove the missiles from Turkey. But this is extremely confidential: only a handful of people know that I am saying this to you."

George watched Dobrynin's face carefully. Was it his imagination, or was the diplomat concealing a rush of excitement?

Bobby said: "George, give the ambassador the phone numbers we use to get to the president directly."

George grabbed a pad, wrote down three numbers, tore off the sheet, and handed it to Dobrynin.

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