The Secret Recordings Of John F. Kennedy This story originally
aired on October 18, 2012. In October 1962, just over 50 years
ago, the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war and waited
for 13 tense days for a resolution to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
During that summer, President John F. Kennedy had installed
secret recorders throughout the White House. The new book,
“Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F.
Kennedy,” offers a look at Kennedy’s audio chronicle of the
crisis. A Secret From Everyone No one really knows why Kennedy
installed the recorders in the Oval Office. Putnam spoke about
possible motivations: He began it in the summer of 1962. Many
people felt it was in reaction to the Bay of Pigs, but the Bay
of Pigs actually happened in 1961, so there’s a long lead time.
But there was a sense that he was interested in history, that he
was perhaps preparing material for his own memoir, but
also…there was a sense that he wanted an accurate accounting so
that he could hold people to the