The Civil Rights Movement
1963 saw the escalation of the Civil Rights Movement in America. In early January, Martin Luther King, Jr would lead a Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. after the Savannah Church Bombing. The Savannah Church Bombing was possible the most horrific moment of the American Civil Rights Movement; 7 Ku Klux Klan members would approach an African American Church in Savannah, Georgia, on a Sunday morning during Chuch hours, and began hurling explosives at the church. The explosives would cause a fire that burned the entire Church down, over 44 people would be killed, and 21 more would be injured. After hearing of the news, Martin Luther King organized a march from Richmond, Virginia, all the way to the nation's capital in Washington, D.C. During this march, on several occasions, many Ku Klux Klan members would attempt to attack or stop the marchers. Thankfully, they would prevail. At the end of the Second March on Washington by Martin Luther King, he would deliver his famous "My vision" speech, which outlined his belief for Civil Rights for all Americans. At the end of the speech, several Government Officials, including President Rockefeller, and Senator Kennedy would also make speeches for the cause.
"Last Sunday, more than eight thousand of us started on a mighty walk from Richmond, Virginia. We have walked through desolate valleys and across the trying hills. We have walked on meandering highways and rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by the rains."
-An excerpt from MLK's Famous speech.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
"Direct aggression against Cuba would mean nuclear war. The Americans speak about such aggression as if they did not know or did not want to accept this fact. I have no doubt they would lose such a war."
-Ernesto "Che" Guevera, February 1963.
The year would begin with one of the most fear inducing events that the world has ever seen. The Cuban Missile Crises began on January 14th, 1963; when UN Ambassador Alfred Gruenther revealed to the United Nations several airborne pictures of Russian Missiles in several locations in Cuba. In possibly one of the most famous moments of Gruenther's Career, just before showing the photographs, he would forcefully ask Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, if the Soviet Union was installing Russian Missiles in Cuba, which he would famously puncuate with "Don't wait for the damned translation, just answer 'yes' or 'no'!". Zorin refused to answer the question, and as such, Gruenther would then show the U.N. the US aquired images of Soviet Missiles. What would follow was what many claim was the closest that the United States ever got to going to war with the Soviet Union.
The Cuban Missile Crisis would reach it's most critical point in February 1963, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would instruct the Strategic Air Command to go to DEFCON 2, the first of two recorded times, after Khrushchev had issued a statement which read that "The United States' 'pirate action' [would] lead to war..". By the end of the night, President Rockefeller had met with his Cabinet, in the wee hours of the morning, to discuss possible outcomes to the crisis. After several hours of discussion with top military advisors, including Foreign Policy Advisor Henry Kissinger, the one conclusion seemed to be an amphibian invasion of Cuba, with a possible nuclear strike on the Soviet Union if necessary. Everything pointed toward what many believed could be the end of the Earth as we knew it. President Rockefeller and his cabinet would eventually enter into a secret meeting with Soviet Union officials. On the night of March 1st, 1963, the crisis was finally settled. President Rockefeller secretly agreed to remove all missiles that had been placed in Turkey, in exchange for the Soviet Union removing all missiles placed in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis would prove to be an incredible foreign policy victory for the administration, in contrast to the humiliation that was the Bay of Pigs invasion.