The crisis in Ukraine, in which the arrogance of a Russian tyrant threatens to ignite a senseless and devastating war, brings to mind the Cuban Missile Crisis during the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev attempted to deploy in Cuba offensive intermediate-range nuclear missiles capable of destroying almost every major city in the western hemisphere.
This came despite repeated American warnings that no such action would be tolerated and repeated Soviet denials that any such action was contemplated. In the face of this deceit and treachery, President Kennedy bore unparalleled responsibility.
Overruling intense opposition, Kennedy rejected the option of an immediate air strike on Cuba and imposed a naval quarantine on the island, thereby granting Khrushchev time to reflect. In return for minor American concessions and to the utter fury of Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong, the Soviet dictator relented, the missiles were withdrawn and the peace of the planet was preserved.
What if Kennedy had decided differently, bombing the missiles and then invading the island as most of his advisers urged?
Although it was not known at the time, the Soviet forces in Cuba also had been equipped with shorter-range "tactical" or "battlefield" nuclear weapons, which are easier to conceal from aerial surveillance. Khrushchev, moreover, had granted the local Soviet commander full authority to use these weapons in the event of an American attack.
As it is inconceivable that this country could lose a conventional war in the Caribbean, the tactical missiles would have provided the only plausible Soviet defense. In which case, the American invasion fleet would have been decimated, tens of thousands of American soldiers and sailors would have been incinerated, and Kennedy would have had no choice but to press the button.
Within months of the missile crisis, "a shaft of light cut into the darkness," as Kennedy, a chastened Khrushchev, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan reached agreement on the atmospheric nuclear test-ban treaty, which cleansed the skies and waters of dangerous radioactivity and began the long process of detente.
In a speech promoting the treaty, Kennedy said this:
"A full-scale nuclear exchange, lasting less than 60 minutes, could wipe out more than 300 million Americans, Europeans and Russians. And the survivors, as Chairman Khrushchev warned the Communist Chinese, 'would envy the dead.' For they would inherit a world so devastated by explosions and poison and fire that today we cannot even conceive of all its horrors."
It was from this fate Kennedy probably saved the world. The importance of his decisions at that time cannot possibly be exaggerated and should never be forgotten. May the Kennedy model of firmness, clarity and restraint serve as an example to President Biden in the current challenge.
Joseph Tipler
Centralia
