Archival footage of President John F. Kennedy's Oval Office Address during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 22, 1962 President Kennedy addressed the nation on the build-up of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba, saying he had ordered a quarantine of the island and would continue military surveillance missions. He also said that the U.S. would consider any attack on the Western Hemisphere an attack on the U.S., "requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." He also called on international diplomatic organizations to back the U.S.