"But this secret, swift, and extraordinary buildup of Communist missiles—in an area well known to have a special and historical relationship to the United States and the nations of the Western Hemisphere, in violation of Soviet assurances, and in defiance of American and hemispheric policy— this sudden, clandestine [secret] decision to station strategic weapons for the first time outside of Soviet soil—is a deliberately provocative and unjustified change in the status quo which cannot be accepted by this country, if our courage and our commitments are ever to be trusted again by either friend or foe. . . . "– President John F. Kennedy, October 22, 1962
This statement by President Kennedy is most closely associated with the:
A. Bay of Pigs invasion
B. United States-Soviet space race
C. nuclear test ban controversy
D. Cuban missile crisis