Executive Committee of the National Security Council (clockwise from bottom left): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon, U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Attorney General Robert

Executive Committee of the National Security Council (clockwise from bottom left): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor, Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon, U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Llewellyn Thompson, Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency William C. Foster, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell Gilpatric in the cabinet room during meeting with U.S. President John F. Kennedy regarding the crisis in Cuba, White House, Washington, D.C., USA, Cecil W. Stoughton, White House Photographs, October 29, 1962. (Photo by: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)