A SHORT HISTORY OF RIGHT WING DESTRUCTION PART 17

After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, JFK berated himself for putting too much faith in the CIA and in the generals who advocated the invasion.  That experience may have saved the world from nuclear war in 1962.

In October, 1962, United States reconnaissance planes detected Soviet missile installations in Cuba.  JFK didn't feel he had any alternative but to respond to the missiles being installed so close to our own shores.  He was also aware that Soviet Premier Khrushchev was being pressured by hardliners in the Kremlin.

The strategy of a naval blockade of Cuba was a compromise.  Some people in the Pentagon thought the United States should launch a full fledged invasion of Cuba.  Some generals were not even dissuaded by the threat of nuclear war.

The naval blockade posed risks of its own.  A miscalculation on either side could have sparked a nuclear war.  The Soviets were finally persuaded to take their missiles out of Cuba in exchange for a removal of U. S. missiles in Turkey.

Even after coming so perilously close to annihilation, many on the political right have advocated for bigger militaries and huge nuclear stockpiles.  We have had other close calls such as an incident in 1983 when the Soviet Union misinterpreted war games by the United States and Britain as an imminent attack.

More to come