Abram Chayes was a Legal Adviser to the US State Department under the Kennedy Administration. In the interview he explains the US governments approach to legally justifying the Cuban blockade of 1962, which was defined as a use of force under the United Nations Charter. Rather than relying on a self-defense case, which would have raised questions about the placement of American missiles in Europe, US lawyers recommended that the White House seek authorization for a blockade from the Organization of American States. Mr. Chayes recalls a lively discussion of every legal option by the Executive Committee before a decision was reached to proceed on that basis. This course of action had the benefit of demonstrating that the US was taking the legal aspect seriously. He describes running the signed OAS resolution to the White House and watching President Kennedy drop everything to sign the historic quarantine proclamation. Mr. Chayes also describes how the involvement of nuclear weapons, particularly Kennedys reluctance to risk a Soviet attack on the US mainland, forced some of the decisions that were made. He explains the compromises made by both the Soviet Union and the United States in resolving the crisis, but ultimately concludes that all of us won, because were all still here. He notes that the resolution of the crisis allowed President Kennedy to go forward with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
