On December 17, 1963, shortly after President Kennedy’s assassination, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara gave NATO ministers a top secret briefing on the state of U.S. nuclear weapons and policy and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO under the new president.
Robert McNamara’s Press Conference on Cuban Missile Crisis
Silent footage of a press briefing by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara regarding the Soviet buildup in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Robert McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor in the National Military Command Center
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell Taylor pose for cameras in a conference room in the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon.
Robert McNamara’s Special Briefing on Cuba
Faced with mounting Congressional criticism of the Kennedy’s administration’s transparency on the Soviet buildup in Cuba, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and John Hughes of the Defense Intelligence Agency laid out in unprecedented detail for television cameras and the reporters the intelligence information that gave the administration the confidence to say that no long-range nuclear missiles remained in Cuba.
Kennedy Selects Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense
President-elect John F. Kennedy’s fifth appointment to his new Cabinet filled the Secretary of Defense spot. He chose 44-year-old Robert S. McNamara, who had recently been appointed President of the Ford Motor Company.