Reliving the Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crises, Oct. 16, 1962 to Oct. 28, 1962 I was a senior at UCLA. Russia was delivering supposedly hidden nuclear tipped missiles to Cuba, and President Kennedy was blockading Cuba and telling Nikita Kruschev to remove the missiles. From the American viewpoint, we were agressed against. From Russia’s point of view, we started the confrontation by putting missiles near the Russian border in Italy and Turkey. From Castro’s viewpoint, the missiles would guarantee that we would not invade again as we did at the Bay of Pigs (from Wikipedia.)
By “reliving” the Cuban Missile Crisis of course mean that the current confrontation with North Korea is starting to feel like the Cuban Missile Crisis. During that crises, people in the US felt that a nuclear war was actually possible, depending how intransigent these two Cold War leaders were. Americans and Russians, however, may not have seen the balanced picture, and were each sure they were on the right side, and the other side was the aggressor.
Being at UCLA, I felt in the middle of the aerospace industry, although I could not identify a specific target. Yet every day, I thought about leaving classes and going to live with my relatives in Palm Springss for a while.
From the US, we considered Kennedy a hero, since we thought that he had made Premier Kruschev back down. From the Russian’s point of view, Kennedy removed the Italian and Russian missiles, and promised no to invade Cuba again.
As is usual now, we have no idea how much Trump has consulted with our Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, or Rex with the State Department. Same for the leadership of Congress. Since we are not at war with North Korea, Trump is not getting the approval of Congress or the UN to justify any action.
The supposed immediate event that is requiring this is a possible upcoming 6th nuclear test on Saturday, April 15, in honor of the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, the first Supreme Leader, and Kim Jong un’s grandfather. Kim Jong un is claiming that we should return to negotiations. Chinese Prime Minister XI Jinping is threatening to cut off oil to North Korea if they carry out the nuclear test. Kim Jong UN is threatening a massive attack on US bases in South Korea, and demanding that we should remove our nuclear weapons from Korea. Sounds as complicated as the Cuban Missile Crises. With Trump’s Policy of Surprise, nobody knows where his red line is, or what he wants, other than the denuclearization of North Korea.
We’ll have to see how this all plays out. Since this is taking place on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, I don’t think we have to move out of Irvine, and also because we are not near any targets, which aren’t reachable anyway.
The vulnerable nation is South Korea, and Trump has said that he will not act without South Korea’s approval. They have not brought this to a head, so we don’t anticipate they would want any action. The news has upped the number of North Korea’s from 13 to 30, but 15 on another channel.
The nuclear device test is presumably to develop a more powerful device. Nobody is saying that it is a warhead yet.
Right now I am watching on TV the parade in Pyongyang, with lots of mobile missiles, and vast parading troops with red flags. Then the statues of Kim’s father and grandfather.
