What happened
Kennedy met Andrei Gromyko without disclosing the photographic discovery. Gromyko defended Soviet assistance; Kennedy reiterated his earlier warnings about offensive weapons. Their conversation illustrates the difference between what each government said publicly and what it knew privately.
Sources for this passage: [1] [2]Kennedy and Gromyko speak past the secret
Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko met Kennedy in Washington and presented Soviet assistance to Cuba as defensive. Kennedy stressed the seriousness with which the United States viewed offensive weapons, but did not reveal the photographic discovery. Both sides therefore spoke within a diplomatic exchange whose most important new evidence remained undisclosed.
The meeting preserved secrecy while Kennedy’s advisers debated their response. Once the photographs were made public, the earlier Soviet assurances became part of Washington’s argument that Moscow had concealed a strategic deployment. The encounter was significant for that loss of trust as well as for what was said about weapons.
Sources for this passage: [2] [1]