Credit Line: Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Digital Identifier: JFKWHP-AR6295-2S.
In 1953, at the age of 34, Bundy became the youngest ever dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, before serving as National Security Adviser from 1961 to 1966. During the Cuban Missile Crisis Bundy encouraged the President to consider all possible courses of action and sometimes played devil’s advocate or changed his mind. For example, Bundy made the case for doing nothing about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. On October 18 he argued that “we would be better off to merely take note of the existence of these missiles, and to wait until the crunch comes in Berlin”. The next day he changed his mind and favored decisive action – a surprise air strike, as the blockade would not be enough to remove the missiles from Cuba.