Kennedy knows about the missiles. He has to know. I’ve told the Russians here on the island that Kennedy knows. If the exile worms know, then Kennedy knows. If the U.S. press knows—and they do, it is obvious—then Kennedy knows. When I say this to the Russians, they shrug their shoulders and say, hey, what can we do? We are just following our orders.

We had a Cuban missile crisis this morning. The Soviets were transporting one of their big missiles from a bunker to a concrete launching pad they had just finished. A truck was pulling a huge trailer, with the missile lying on it like a gigantic shiny white log. But they came to a corner they couldn’t get around because of a row of mailboxes out by the road. The Soviets said they had to uproot all the mailboxes in order to make it around the corner. But the Cubans in the neighborhood couldn’t understand what they were saying.

This is unbelievable: yesterday, the first big nuclear missiles arrived on the island. I saw them. Everybody near Mariel, the port where they arrived, saw them. I assume the gringos saw them. They must have seen them. How could they not see them? So why is Kennedy playing this cat and mouse game, now that the big ones are here. Does he not know? I keep telling the Russians: you should break the news to Kennedy right away. That way, you control the terms of the confrontation. You just say: “here they are, gringos.

This is fantastic news, unexpected news: Khrushchev has said publicly exactly what needed to be said: if the U.S. attacks and invades Cuba, he will order his nuclear forces to pummel the United States, to destroy the gringo nation and gringo empire once and for all. Frankly, I didn’t think Comrade Nikita had it in him. Yes, he has gone out on a limb to deliver the weapons to our island, and we appreciate it. That is a real and meaningful commitment. But against the gringos, you must be willing to use them, and to say you will use them, in the face of enemy aggression.