Much has been made of President John Kennedy's experiences during the 13-day Cuban missile crisis, facing the potential of launching nuclear war with Russia.
I knew that, following a futile invasion of Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy faced intense pressure from his high-ranking military advisers to escalate the attack to a fuller scale. Ultimately, Kennedy resisted, raising a tremendous uproar of unpopularity within his own administration. The gesture of weakness was distasteful and mocked by many.
What I didn't know, nor did Kennedy's advisers at the time, was that the Russian commanders stationed in Cuba were authorized to respond with tactical and strategic nuclear missiles. In fact, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had assured Kennedy at the time that "no nuclear warheads were in Cuba at the time." So it goes that the most popular decision could have cost the southeastern part of the nation millions of lives' worth of nuclear destruction.
Kennedy's policy has been described as "peace through strength" at the height of the Cold War. He placed the common good of humanity over the manifold temptations of war, just as Lincoln had elevated the salvation of the Union over the issue of slavery a hundred years before.
May we all pause to think of the small- and large-scale "wars" currently being waged within us, and try applying a generous dose of peace to see what results!
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