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Ted Rohde ©Stars and StripesFrankfurt, West Germany, September, 1962: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara talks to reporters during his two-day visit to U.S. Army and Air Force facilities in West Germany. McNamara said he supported President Kennedy's request for standby authority to call up 150,000 reservists amid heightening Cold War tension. "I testified before Congress that the crisis Americans face today is the most serious since the Korean War," he said. The point would be stressed only a few days later, when Soviet missiles were detected in Cuba and the two superpowers hovered at the brink of war.

RELATED MATERIAL: Stars and Stripes' 1962 story about Robert McNamara's press conference.