At 5 p.m., November 20, 1962, 1 hour before President Kennedy's press conference, Ambassador at Large Thompson transmitted the following message through Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin:
"In addition to what he intends to announce at the press conference, he has also ordered a lower state of alert for the US armed forces that had been introduced in the beginning of the Cuban events. Simultaneously, those air squadrons that had been called to active duty during the Cuban crisis have been ordered back into reserve".
The text was provided by the Russian Foreign Ministry and is an unofficial translation.