2 days ago…a memory……my bad….all the silliness, the craziness of the last couple of days and I missed posting this bit of history……an important piece of history….
A day us old farts will never forget……ever hear of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Let us look at the event and the timeline…..
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. In a TV address on October 22, 1962, President John Kennedy (1917-63) notified Americans about the presence of the missiles, explained his decision to enact a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the U.S. was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to national security. Following this news, many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. However, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s (1894-1971) offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba. Kennedy also secretly agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey.
https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis
This was a huge deal for about 2 weeks……us older Americans remember just how the situation played out……or did we?
John F. Kennedy and his advisers were stunned to learn that the Soviet Union was, without provocation, installing nuclear-armed medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. With these offensive weapons, which represented a new and existential threat to America, Moscow significantly raised the ante in the nuclear rivalry between the superpowers—a gambit that forced the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear Armageddon. On October 22, the president, with no other recourse, proclaimed in a televised address that his administration knew of the illegal missiles, and delivered an ultimatum insisting on their removal, announcing an American “quarantine” of Cuba to force compliance with his demands. While carefully avoiding provocative action and coolly calibrating each Soviet countermeasure, Kennedy and his lieutenants brooked no compromise; they held firm, despite Moscow’s efforts to link a resolution to extrinsic issues and despite predictable Soviet blustering about American aggression and violation of international law. In the tense 13‑day crisis, the Americans and Soviets went eyeball-to-eyeball. Thanks to the Kennedy administration’s placid resolve and prudent crisis management—thanks to what Kennedy’s special assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. characterized as the president’s “combination of toughness and restraint, of will, nerve, and wisdom, so brilliantly controlled, so matchlessly calibrated, that [it] dazzled the world”—the Soviet leadership the world”—the Soviet leadership blinked: Moscow dismantled the missiles, and a cataclysm was averted.
Almost every word of that statement is FALSE.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis/309190/
Just another Cold War situation that could have boiled over into a real life war…….and calmer heads prevailed…..
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I can remember we had ‘Air Raid Drill’ in school at the time, as they expected war with the Soviets.
We were in central London, so would have been vapourised anyway! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
I was a kid in Spain……so not as bad for me….chuq
During those days I was a sophomore in college in Atlanta. We were all pretty worried, fearful and concerned. We were well within the range of the missiles and a big target.
The lies Kennedy told so well and smoothly makes Trump look like small potatoes.
Thanx for sharing your memories……chuq
I had an aunt and uncle in Gitmo before, during and after; plus a cousin in the Navy, working for a Vice-Admiral in Norfolk. I simply held my breath during the whole thing and….
Thanks to the Kennedy administration’s placid resolve and prudent crisis management—thanks to what Kennedy’s special assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr. characterized as the president’s “combination of toughness and restraint, of will, nerve, and wisdom, so brilliantly controlled, so matchlessly calibrated, that [it] dazzled the world”
IS FALSE.
Just it is……for one those missiles in Turkey were obsolete and were to be replaced soon anyway….chuq
Exactly. Plus it was a reporter’s idea to that secret call with Khrushchev. Wish I could find his name.
I will see if I can help….chuq
Thank you.
I too get brain farts…LOL chuq
At least old age is good for something, blaming senior moments on! 🙂
So gtrue and I use “mental pause” as well….LOL chuq
I just call my brain a black hole. Just like the real ones – everything gets sucked in but nothing ever escapes.
Good one….best I can do with that name is a guy named McGeorge Bundy who was the NatSec Adviser….. chuq
Could be. I know I had it somewhere, I’ll keep looking.
😎