Miller Center

:: Updates ::

The Cuban Missile Crisis Transcripts, pt 2 
[posted Feb. 27, 2006]

In a posting on HNN.us on February 27, 2006, Max Holland disputed a passage from the Presidential Recordings Program's published transcript of the 11 AM meeting on October 22, 1962, published in Philip Zelikow and Ernest May, eds., The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy: The Great Crises, volume 3: October 22-October 28, 1962 (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), pp.29-30. Mr. Holland was an Associate Editor of that volume.

The disputed passage is presented below. The words in bold indicate differences between the MC 2001 and Holland 2006 versions. Among the differences, readers will notice some differences in editorial conventions. For instance, where the Miller Center transcribes "hell of a," Holland transcribes "helluva." There are also differences in punctuation. A detailed explanation of the Miller Center's editorial conventions is available here.

Below is the original PRP transcript of the passage as published in the 2001 edition (volume number: page number; it also serves as a link to a pdf the published page) and Mr. Holland's suggested rendering. Also included is a link to the corresponding section of the original audio clip in two file formats. The WAV link, which includes the tape number followed by the timecode on the original tape is the highest quality available. It is cut from a fully digital copy of the DAT master held by the Kennedy Library. The sound quality of the original recording is poor and we have applied no filtering or adjustment to the WAV file that might distort the quality further. The other link (play button) is to and MP3 version of the same clip. Although the MP3 has been encoded at a very high bitrate and quality (320 kpbs, mono), sound files in that format inherently suffer some sound degradation during the compression process and should therefore be treated as lesser sound quality for difficult audio passages such as this; we offer it for listeners' convenience.

We welcome suggestions and corrections for any transcript that we have posted and/or published. And we thank Mr. Holland for his suggested rendering of this difficult passage.

 

MC (2001): 2:29-30

Now, the point of the matter is, these things [missiles] are so mobile that it doesn’t require a hell of a lot of work. You don’t want to make it look like they’ve been working for two months here. Before we knew about it. The fact is the mobile [MRBMs] . . . The other ones [the IRBMs] are not ready, and they’re the ones that require more [construction]. These other ones are mobile and can move rather quickly. So that the President . . . we don’t want to say the blockhouses are complete and so on. And we have to make sure it doesn’t look like it’s been going on for months.
Holland (2006): HNN.us Now the point of the matter is, these things [missiles] are so mobile that it doesn’t require a helluva lot of work. You don’t want them to make [it look] like there’s been work for two months here that, ah, our fellas knew about. In fact, it’s the mobile [MRBMs]—the other ones [IRBMs] are not ready, and they’re the ones [that are] far more so[phisticated]. . . the[se] other ones[MRBMs] are mobile and can move rather quickly, so that . . . . Listen: you don’t want to say the blockhouses are complete, and so on. I mean, I wouldn’t . . . I’d make sure this doesn’t look like it’s been going on for months.
Sound File:

MP3: 

WAV: 032.1/03544