cubin and allied interests. in 1942 and for much of 1943, guantanamo served as the caribbean hub of the convoy system that provided protection for allied shipping, particularly ships, a merchant marine ships coming from places like aruba. they were carrying oil or other precious strategic supplies that we wanted to go either to new york or the halifax to aid the allied cause into this sheltering of these merchant marine ships by with destroyer escorts and in some cases planes flying in overhead turned guantanamo into the caribbean hub into the interlocking convoy system and eventually it persuaded admiral of the third right to withdraw his will fax -- wolf packs in germany. for a time guantanamo was the second only to new york as the busiest port in the western hemisphere and because the convoy system worked, strategic wartime materiel was not only petroleum but sugar got through to the allies and the u.s. military presence in cuba also deterred the fascists and the nazis from trying to turn cuba into a caribbea

president kennedy said linda cubin missiles -- when the russian missiles were put in cuba, there is no conceivable defensive justification for the missiles begin their. so they obviously are offensive just to attack us. well, there is a very conceivable defensive reason. fidel castro they were plotting his assassination and sabotaging the crops and mining the harbors, said he thought there was an invasion coming. and he had to protect himself the only way he knew how. after all it wasn't normal in his interest to make himself a target for the nuclear war on that island, but he went along with khrushchev because he knew or thought there was an attack coming. so kennedy lied to the american people and said there is no conceivable defensive reason, and fidel castro knew that and we didn't know that. >> host: what if khrushchev had just put in the tactical nukes, short range from ones that wouldn't reach a plan to, what and reach washington? wouldn't you have -- q. what have been well protected from a u.s. invasion. >> guest: that is from the cuban point of view. but khrushchev didn't want

president kennedy said there is no -- wind the cubin missiles were put in cuba, there is no conceivable defensive justification for the missiles being there so they obviously are offensive. they are there just to attack us. well, there was a very conceivable defensive reason. fidel castro knew they were plotting his assassination and sele touching his crops and minding his harbors and so he thought there was an invasion coming. and he had to protect himself the we he knew how. after all it was informally in his interest to make himself a target for nuclear war on that little island. but he went along with khrushchev because he knew or fault that there was an attack coming. so kennedy lied to the american people and said there is no conceivable defensive reason and fidel castro knew that and khrushchev knew that but we didn't know it. >> host: what if khrushchev put in some tactical nukes, short-range? ones that wouldn't reach a plant or washington? wouldn't you have, you know, cuba would have been well protected from a u.s. invasion -- >> guest: that's from the to the point of view, but