So far, so good. Kennedy just said again yesterday that he sees no need for an invasion of Cuba “at this time.” He says that no offensive weapons have been detected arriving in Cuba. Ha ha. Long may it be so! My people in Cuba tell me that we are about one month away from making the missiles operational. When they are operational, I’ll fly directly to Cuba. I have already begun working on my speech. It will be one of my best. It will mark the arrival of the USSR as the other superpower—plain and simple. Not even the neo-fascists will be able to deny that we have arrived. I need to get someone working on where the speech should be made. I know the Cubans have a square they use for such purposes. We will need their biggest space. Maybe we should also supply them with sound equipment so that millions of them can hear our speeches—Fidel’s and mine. Of course we should. If we can give them nuclear missiles, surely we should give them our best sound equipment for Cuba’s moment in the sun. NK