A selection of the people who participated in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Links go to the interview in the Oral History Program created for the John F. Kennedy Library.
Leaders of the US, USSR, and Cuba
- John F. Kennedy, President of the United States (1961-1963)
- Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union (1958-1964)
- Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba (1959-1976)
Executive Committee of the National Security Council
On October 16, President Kennedy assembled a core group of advisors to discuss the Cuban Missiles Crisis. On October 22, he formalized this group as the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, or ExComm.
- Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President (1961-1963)
- Dean Rusk, Secretary of State (1961-1969)
- Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense (1961-1968)
- C. Douglas Dillon, Secretary of the Treasury (1961-1965)
- Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General, (1961-1964)
- General Maxwell D. Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (U.S. Army) (1962-1964)
- John McCone, Director of Central Intelligence (1961-1965)
- George Ball, Under Secretary of State (1961-1966)
- Roswell Gilpatric, Deputy Secretary of Defense (1961-1964)
- Llewellyn Thompson, Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1957-1962), US Ambassador-at-large (1962-1966)
- Theodore Sorensen, Special Counsel to the President (1961-1964)
- McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor (1961-1966)
Joint Chiefs of Staff
- General Maxwell D. Taylor, U.S. Army, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (also on ExComm)
- Admiral George W. Anderson, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations (1961-1963)
- General Curtis E. LeMay, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (1961-1965)
- General David M. Shoup, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps (1960-1963)
- General Earle G. Wheeler, Chief of Staff of the United States Army (1962-1964)
Other Participants
In addition to Kennedy and his advisors, Khrushchev, and Castro, others in and outside of the United States participated in the Crisis. Here, list of people referenced in Atomic Gambit who played a role.
- Dean Acheson, United States Secretary of State (1949-1953)
- Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador to US (1962-1986)
- Mario Garcia-Incháustegui, Cuban Ambassador to UN (1961-1968?)
- Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957-1985)
- W. Averell Harriman, U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943-1946), Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1961-1963)
- Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1957-1963)
- Anastas Mikoyan, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1955-1964)
- Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary (1961-1964)
- Adlai Stevenson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1961-1965)
- Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (1961-1967)
- U Thant, Secretary General of the United Nations (1961-1971)
- Valerian Zorin, Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations (1956-1965)