'Kennedy's Blockade - The White House's Cover Story

The president met with a joint chief of staff to reveal his decision to blockade, rather than bomb or invade cuba. He explained that a limited first step might persuade the soviets not to retaliate in berlin,. This did not go down well with the joint chiefs, who were to risk a pun uniformly in support of the invasion option. But kennedy wasn't ready to endorse that plan. The president insisted that a soviet nuclear strike on America would result in 80 to a hundred million casualties.