Photo by Warren K. Leffler. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Adlai Stevenson was Governor of Illinois, a Democratic Party presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956, and served as Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 to 1965. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Stevenson came to Washington and joined a few of the White House sessions. He urged moderation and a diplomatic approach, instead of an air strike. Stevenson’s “finest hour” was the October 25 debate at the United Nations, during which he confronted Soviet UN representative Valerian Zorin with photographic evidence and aggressively demanded that he admit the Soviet deployment of missiles in Cuba.