Cuba Missile Crisis Began 50 Years Ago This Week
HenryGarten
Posts: 24,800 Forum Member
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Do you remember the Cuba Missile Crisis? I cannot say that I do as I was very young at the time. However I do remember the fear that gripped the people. It was a fear I have never experienced since. People really did believe that the end of the World was nigh.
There is a story about the headmaster of the secondary school that I eventually attended. He brought in a tranny radio to tune into Armageddon at midday.
Here is a summary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Are there any programmes on the media to mark such an important anniversary
Here is the Wiki account of the crisis
There is a story about the headmaster of the secondary school that I eventually attended. He brought in a tranny radio to tune into Armageddon at midday.
Here is a summary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Are there any programmes on the media to mark such an important anniversary
Here is the Wiki account of the crisis
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Comments
Yes but it very nearly came to blows during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The missilles were all ready to be exchanged (ok they are right now too) but there was a flash point. As I understand it Russian ships were approaching Cuba and America said they would sink the first one that entered the Quarantine zone.
What was the fight about? Owning Cuba?
I'm not sure the planet could have dealt with a second one... at least not without a lot of heavy drinking
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19903150
Russia had secretly based nuclear missiles in Cuba. This was uncomfortable close to the USA for American linking.
On the other hand if Russia were to dismantle them would mean a loss of face by Nikita Khrushchev
The American President was JFK
according to the bbc (yesterday), there was a second secret crisis which carried on after.........
Cuban missile crisis: The other, secret one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19903150
Were Russia being deliberately provocative?
Well yes, Kruschev decided it would be a good 'wind up' to base missiles in Cuba with the kind permission of Castro, the ships carrying the missiles were quite a short distance from Cuba when Kruschev changed his mind, by which time it was assumed that Kennedy was preparing not only to attack the ships, but carry out a nuclear strike on Russia.
It's like a game of chess!
I like that BBC video. Rather good.
Well at that time the cold war was like a game of chess, with Russia, the USA and the UK all vying to place nuclear weapons where they could be deployed quickly.
It is amazing that one has to be over thirty years old now to remember the cold war.
But a rather deadly one.
Both my husband and I remember this only too well. We were in our teens, in boarding schools and we both thought we were going to die.
I particularly was very far from my parents as they were posted abroad at the time in Singapore and to this day I have the letter my father wrote to me at the height of the crisis telling me that he and my mother loved me very much and that if they did not see me again to remember that.
It was a truly horrible time!
I suppose every generation has its bogey bear - and for my generation it was the Atom Bomb.
Seem to recall that Russia quite liked to use confrontation to try and get the USA and her allies to consider hostilities, why? I cannot understand, the USA and her allies were allied with Russia during WW2, then it all went pear shaped at the end of the war, but whenever the USA threatened to retaliate Russia almost always lost face and backed down.
You know how it is when two antagonists are fighting over something and neither wants to back down. Testosterone kick in, the situation became tense. Friends on both sides are urging for restraint but neither will listen. It was a bit like that.
Thankfully the Russians saw sense at the last minute and turned their ships around.
But it was far too close for comfort.
Depends.
At the time the USA was vastly superior at being able to deliver nuclear weapons to the USSR. The USSR obviously knew how strategically disadvantaged they were and the only way they could even out the imbalance was deploy MRBM's and the IRBM's to Cuba.
12 missiles in Turkey were really a smoke screen for a soviet climbdown.
a) It was a 'plan'... Plans are continously drawn up and examined for viability.
b) and no, reading through the released document in it's entirety - there is nothing about killing any US citizens or even anybody on US soil.
then try more research.
i love cut and paste
Why bother? Why not just launch the strike?
So being incinerated did not bother you?