Lindy, I admit my knowledge of the Cuba missile crisis, Bay of Pigs etc is limited. I was only 13 at the time of the missile crisis, so it's not surprising I don't have all the details off pat. I was 12 during Bay of Pigs and you can imagine it wasn't a big deal for me in Auckland [though I did know about it]. I was paying fairly close attention to the missile crisis though, and as a Herald boy, I was first with the newspaper in the morning. We didn't have TV in those days, nor ADSL cyberspace.
Oh sure, Krushchev apparently won a debate or something, big deal. Maybe that gave Krushchev and his politburo mates excessive confidence. But they soon lost it when staring down the barrel of 20 megaton ICBMs, B52s by the hundred and fleets of warships which would make mince-meat of the USSR effort.
Yes, Tiger Woods, Bobby Fischer, Cassius Clay, JFK, Obama and others might look like greenhorns, but somehow, those greenhorns very often make the old guard look like has-beens in short order. Sonny Liston was supposed to destroy Cassius.
JFK didn't set off the Cold War. It was running long before that and the iron curtain had been up since WWII's end. Cuba was just a pawn in the play. Probably of less consequence than Bobby Fischer who beat Spassky and the Russian team [single-handedly].
It would be wise of Islamic Jihad, Hu Jintao, Putin, Kim and co to be somewhat circumspect about racing to be the first to do what Biden said would likely happen and try Obama out with a fist in his face. Already, Obama has been agreeable to Predators hunting down Islamic Jihad in Pakistan.
Mqurice |
