Background and position
As Soviet Foreign Minister, Gromyko was responsible for presenting his government’s position abroad. His White House meeting on 18 October took place during the period when the American discovery remained secret. The two sides therefore entered the conversation with sharply unequal knowledge of what the other knew.
Sources for this passage: [1] [2]Role in October 1962
On 18 October Gromyko described Soviet help to Cuba as defensive while Kennedy already possessed photographic evidence of missile sites. Their conversation exposed the gulf between Soviet assurances and American intelligence. Kennedy did not reveal the photographs during that meeting.
Kennedy allowed the Soviet assurances about defensive assistance to be stated without revealing the reconnaissance evidence. The resulting record preserves an unusually clear example of diplomacy conducted while a major intelligence discovery was being withheld.
Sources for this passage: [1] [2]Why their role matters
The meeting matters because language such as “defensive” could describe an intended political purpose while concealing the character of the deployed weapons. It also shows the limits of a ministerial conversation: the decisive correspondence and final withdrawal decision involved Kennedy and Khrushchev directly.
Sources for this passage: [2] [3]