1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Gromyko told Kennedy that Soviet assistance to Cuba was defensive and denied an offensive deployment.
Cold War · October 1962 · permanent subject timeline
18 October 1962: Kennedy Meets Gromyko
Kennedy confronts Soviet assurances while keeping U.S. intelligence secret. This page combines historical context with 12 matching records drawn directly from the World History Database Cuban Missile Crisis archive.
Historical context
18 October 1962: Kennedy Meets Gromyko: overview and significance
What happened?
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko met President Kennedy at the White House while the United States already possessed photographic evidence of offensive missile sites in Cuba.
Why was it important?
The meeting deepened U.S. mistrust because Soviet representatives continued to describe assistance to Cuba as defensive while Kennedy concealed how much Washington already knew.
World History Database records
18 October 1962: Kennedy Meets Gromyko timeline
The records below are selected from the 195-record Cuban Missile Crisis archive and rendered as static HTML in chronological order.
1962
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Gromyko assured Kennedy that Soviet assistance to Cuba was defensive while the President already possessed evidence of offensive missile sites.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy told Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko that the United States would not tolerate offensive missiles in Cuba; Gromyko denied that offensive Soviet weapons were being deployed.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy restated his public warning to Gromyko without revealing that the missile sites had been photographed.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy met Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko while withholding knowledge of the photographed missile sites.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Lundahl's analysts continued comparing new imagery to Soviet missile systems and locating additional offensive installations.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
McCone reported continuing intelligence analysis as reconnaissance identified additional missile and bomber-related installations.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
McNamara worked on a quarantine plan designed to halt additional offensive weapons without immediately attacking existing missile sites.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Rusk participated in preparations for the Gromyko meeting and supported maintaining secrecy about the photographic evidence.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Stevenson proposed exploring a negotiated settlement that could remove the Soviet missiles while avoiding a direct military confrontation.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Taylor presented military assessments emphasizing that an air strike might have to be followed by a larger invasion of Cuba.
1962 18th October
Cuban Missile Crisis
Thompson used his experience with Khrushchev to advise that Soviet intentions and domestic pressures should be interpreted cautiously.
Editorial provenance
Sources and editorial review
Compiled and edited by World History Database.
Historical context is editorial material; the chronology is generated from World History Database Cuban Missile Crisis records.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
FRUS: Cuban Missile Crisis and Aftermath · JFK Library · U.S. National Archives
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