Primary source: This is President Kennedy's radio address discussing the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Good evening, my fellow citizens:
This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military build-up on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the western Hemisphere.

Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last Tuesday morning at 9:00am, I directed that our surveillance be stepped up. And having new confirmed and completed our evaluation of the evidence and our decision on a course of action, this government feels obliged to report this new crisis to you in fullest detail.

The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations. Several of them include Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for a distance of more than 1000 nautical miles. Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the Southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area.

Additional sites not yet completed appear to be designed for intermediate range ballistic missiles—capable of traveling more than twice as far—and thus capable of striking most of the major cities in the western Hemisphere, ranging as far North as Hudson’s Bay, Canada, and as far south as Lima, Peru. In addition, jet bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, are now being un-crated and assembled in Cuba, while the necessary air bases are being prepared.

This urgent transformation of Cuba into an important strategic base—by the presences of these large, long-range, and clearly offensive weapons of sudden mass destruction—constitutes an explicit threat to the peace and security of all the Americas, in flagrant and deliberate defiance

(speech continues)

What is the MAIN point of this portion of his radio address?

Question 7Select one:

a.
That all areas of the Western Hemisphere should be concerned with nuclear weapons in Cuba and not just the US.


b.
Negotiations are at an impasse and the possibility of total war with Russia is near.


c.
Kennedy is speaking directly to Fidel Castro of Cuba. Telling him to remove the weapons because of face retaliation.


d.
The USSR does not have the right to place weapons in Cuba due to the Monroe Doctrine and the immediate removal of the weapons should happen. This is a warning by the US government.


e.
Simply informational telling the US citizens about what is happening