Video: 'CUBA - ROCKET PHOTO'S SHOWN TO UNITED NATIONS - SOUND'
(Thursday, October 25, 1962, evening EST; day ten of the Cuban missile crisis, part of the Cold War) — In a dramatic confrontation today before the United Nations Security Council in New York City, U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson II demanded that Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin confirm or deny the existence of Soviet-built missile bases in Cuba.
Video: 'Showdown in the United Nations | The Cuban Missile Crisis | Day 10'
Stevenson asked, “Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don’t wait for the translation. Yes or no?”
Video: 'The Cuban Missile Crisis, Declassified ? Nuclear warfare Documentary Films' (Oct. 25, 1962 at 1:03:20)
Video: 'Our World October 1962 Part 4' (October 25, 1962 at 1:40)
Zorin laughed and then said, “I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor puts questions. In due course, you will have your reply.”
Video: 'Peter Jennings - The Missiles of October: What the World Didn't Know (1992)' (Oct. 25, 1962, at 50:26)
“I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over if that’s your decision,” Stevenson replied.
Video: 'The Cuban Missile Crisis: At The Brink (PBS, 1992)' (Oct. 25, 1962 at 33:43)
When the chief Soviet representative did not reply “yes or no” to the question, Stevenson introduced photographic evidence to support the charge. He presented a display of enlarged photographs and maps to pinpoint the location of the missile basis.
Video: 'This program is called "America Remembers John F. Kennedy" (1983) - This is part 10 of 14 parts.' (Oct. 25, 1962 at 9:01)
Video: '1962: Morality and Brinkmanship (1970 documentary narrated by Peter Jennings)' (Oct. 25, 1962 at 29:19)