How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love The Bomb
Today remains Monday, 22 October 2007.
22 October 1962, by happy coincidence, was also Monday.
Those of us born in 1952 were 10 years old.
On 22 October 1962, at 7 P.M. EDT, in a televised address, President John F. Kennedy announced that a naval blockade, a quarantine, had been placed around the island of Cuba, and that the US would be the sole judge of what cargoes could pass the line of quarantine.
Under international law, this is classified as an “act of war”.
But, of course, international law, as domestic law, is worth the paper upon which written: the actual enforcer is the underlying threat of violence.
A few years earlier, the US had placed missiles armed with nuclear bombs in Turkey, Italy, and the United Kingdom, within 15 minutes flight of impact on Moscow. The attempt of the USSR to place missiles in Cuba, with an impact flight of 15 minutes, was simply an attempt to even the odds.
As JFK and his minions knew. Grounds enough for them, to transport the world to the brink of global annihilation.
The invaluable source is The Kennedy Tapes: Inside The White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, edited by Ernest K. May and Philip D. Zelikow (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1997).
Herewith, the smoking gun. The meeting on 16 October of the President’s crisis group.
RUSK [Secretary of State] Still, about why the Soviets are doing this, Mr. McCone [Director of Central Intelligence] suggested some weeks ago that one thing that Mr. Krushchev may have in mind is that he knows we have a substantial nuclear superiority, but he also knows that we don’t really live under fear of his nuclear weapons to the extent that he has to live under ours. Also, we have nuclear weapons nearby, in Turkey and places like that. … And that Mr. McCone expresses the view that Krushchev may feel that it’s important for us to learn about living under medium-range missiles, and he’s doing that to sort of balance that political, psychological flank.
I cannot subscribe to the notion that the USA was on the side of the angels and the USSR was Satan. or the obverse.
Two evil empires.
The lesser of two evils is not The Good.
Here it is, auf Deutsch:
In English:
"Good night, and good luck."
22 October 1962, by happy coincidence, was also Monday.
Those of us born in 1952 were 10 years old.
On 22 October 1962, at 7 P.M. EDT, in a televised address, President John F. Kennedy announced that a naval blockade, a quarantine, had been placed around the island of Cuba, and that the US would be the sole judge of what cargoes could pass the line of quarantine.
Under international law, this is classified as an “act of war”.
But, of course, international law, as domestic law, is worth the paper upon which written: the actual enforcer is the underlying threat of violence.
A few years earlier, the US had placed missiles armed with nuclear bombs in Turkey, Italy, and the United Kingdom, within 15 minutes flight of impact on Moscow. The attempt of the USSR to place missiles in Cuba, with an impact flight of 15 minutes, was simply an attempt to even the odds.
As JFK and his minions knew. Grounds enough for them, to transport the world to the brink of global annihilation.
The invaluable source is The Kennedy Tapes: Inside The White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, edited by Ernest K. May and Philip D. Zelikow (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1997).
Herewith, the smoking gun. The meeting on 16 October of the President’s crisis group.
RUSK [Secretary of State] Still, about why the Soviets are doing this, Mr. McCone [Director of Central Intelligence] suggested some weeks ago that one thing that Mr. Krushchev may have in mind is that he knows we have a substantial nuclear superiority, but he also knows that we don’t really live under fear of his nuclear weapons to the extent that he has to live under ours. Also, we have nuclear weapons nearby, in Turkey and places like that. … And that Mr. McCone expresses the view that Krushchev may feel that it’s important for us to learn about living under medium-range missiles, and he’s doing that to sort of balance that political, psychological flank.
I cannot subscribe to the notion that the USA was on the side of the angels and the USSR was Satan. or the obverse.
Two evil empires.
The lesser of two evils is not The Good.
Here it is, auf Deutsch:
In English:
"Good night, and good luck."
posted by HH at 8:13 PM
1 Comments:
Wikipedia:
In several shots of the B-52 flying over the polar ice en route to Russia, the shadow of the actual camera plane, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, is visible on the snow below. The B-52 was a model composited into the arctic footage which was sped up to create a sense of jet speed. The camera ship, a former USAAF B-17G-100-VE, serial 44-85643, registered F-BEEA, had been one of four Flying Fortresses purchased from salvage at Altus, Oklahoma in December 1947 by the French Institut Geographique National and converted for survey and photo-mapping duty. It was the last active B-17 of a total of fourteen once operated by the IGN, but it was destroyed in a take-off accident at RAF Binbrook in 1989 during filming of the movie Memphis Belle.
The original musical score for the film was composed by Laurie Johnson. (who also wrote "The Avengers" music)
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