On this day in 1962, a group of White House advisors known as the Executive Committee -- "ExComm" for short -- met with President John F. Kennedy to debrief him on some disquieting news regarding the Soviet presence in Cuba.

Reconnaissance flights over the island had confirmed the presence on Cuban soil not only of Soviet medium-range and intermediate-range nuclear missiles but also of an invasion force numbering close to 100,000 troops.

Both the troop presence and the missile bases constituted a direct violation of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's pledge not to place any offensive weapons in Cuba. A few days later, the CIA would obtain information suggesting that the invasion force's intended landing site was somewhere along the southern tip of Florida.