The piece is part of CFR’s series revisiting key moments in U.S. foreign policy and connects to related posts in the series.

Castro, sensing an imminent U.S. invasion, urges Khrushchev to launch a preemptive nuclear strike if Cuba is attacked, complicating White House calculations and foreshadowing heightened danger on what would become known as Black Saturday.

Scali records Khrushchev and Fomin’s offer: a proposal to remove Soviet missiles under UN inspection in exchange for the United States not invading Cuba, with Khrushchev pledging not to place offensive missiles in Cuba.

Khrushchev’s letter to Kennedy echoes a parallel olive branch, proposing that Soviet ships bound for Cuba would not carry armaments and urging both sides to refrain from actions that could escalate toward war.

Kennedy and his advisers view Fomin’s overture as a potential opening, though the arrangements appear largely serendipitous rather than tightly coordinated.

Scali conveys the State Department message to Fomin at the Statler Hotel coffee shop, a tense, informal exchange highlighted by Fomin paying for the coffee.

The events unfold within the Cuban Missile Crisis, and decisions and unforeseen developments around October 26 shape the crisis’s trajectory toward avoiding nuclear catastrophe.

Scali reports the offer upward; Secretary of State Dean Rusk and White House officials signal willingness to consider it, while Kennedy cautions against public statements that might escalate the crisis.

Alexander Fomin (the KGB station chief, known to Scali as Feklisov) calls Scali and invites a lunch, signaling that war could erupt unless a diplomatic path is found.

John Scali, ABC News diplomatic correspondent, grapples with whether to reveal a pivotal moment from October 26, 1962.