 
i have today been informed by chairman khrushchev that all of the il 28 
bombers now in cuba will be withdrawn in thirty days. 
he also agrees that these planes can be observed and counted as they leave. 
inasmuch as this goes a long way toward reducing the danger which faced 
this hemisphere four weeks ago, i have this afternoon instructed the secretary 
of defense to lift our naval quarantine. 
in view of this action i want to take this opportunity to bring the 
american people up to date on the cuban crisis and to review the progress made 
thus far in fulfilling the understandings between soviet chairman khrushchev 
and myself as set forth in our letters of october 27 and 28. 
chairman khrushchev, it will be recalled, agreed to remove from cuba all 
weapons systems capable of offensive use, to halt the further introduction of 
such weapons into cuba, and to permit appropriate united nations observation 
and supervision to insure the carrying out and continuation of these 
commitments. 
we on our part agreed that, once these adequate arrangements for 
verification had been established, we would remove our naval quarantine and 
give assurances against invasion of cuba. 
the evidence to date indicates that all known offensive missile sites in 
cuba have been dismantled. 
the missiles and their associated equipment have been loaded on soviet 
ships. 
and our inspection at sea of these departing ships has confirmed that the 
number of missiles reported by the soviet union as having been brought into 
cuba, which closely corresponded to our own information, has now been removed. 
in addition the soviet government has stated that all nuclear weapons have 
been withdrawn from cuba and no offensive weapons will be reintroduced. 
nevertheless, important parts of the understanding of october 27th and 28th 
remain to be carried out. 
