August 31 2017
Volume 47 - No. 34
By Friedrich Gomez
There is no shortage of written material on the Cuban Missile Crisis. If anything, there is an over-abundance of books and related literature on the subject. What is almost never addressed is the pivotal query: Could America have survived a full-scale nuclear war back then?
Military experts and a variety of historians have pondered this ‘necessary’ question. It would have been foolhardy for the United States in 1962 not to have assessed this question on military terms. Otherwise, they would not have been doing their job. As uncomfortable and regrettable as the topic may seem, emergency preparedness and military protection of U. S. citizens must all be prudently evaluated. This is a requirement if we, as a free nation are to, realistically, make tough, calculated choices. Viable options and choices that may best safeguard our very existence in an often turbulent and unpredictable world. Over half a century has passed – 54 years to be exact – and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 continues to be a specter, the Ghost of Worldly Past, which continues to haunt us, presenting history often with little form or substance which resembles true fact. The event seems to have taken on a mutant life of its own, bearing little resemblance to its actual self. Professor Sheldon Stern, college teacher, esteemed author, and erstwhile historian at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, says that a half century later there are still, “Misconceptions, half-truths, and outright lies,” concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis. And most reputable historians agree with that harsh assessment.
MISCONCEPTIONS. As pointed out by Dr. Stern and most historians, ‘pop culture’ such as found abundantly in the print and visual media (tabloids, magazines, books, television, and motion pictures) have irreparably shaped public opinion. Even on today’s global internet which feeds an intellectually hungry world there are no shortages of sensationalized themes, such as: “The Cuban Missile Crisis Almost Ended the World,” and “Black Saturday, the Day the Entire World Almost Perished,” or “The 13 Days That Almost Ended Human Civilization,” and from England, “The Day the World Almost Died.”
DID THE WORLD REALLY ALMOST END? Such media moments like, “The Apocalypse Almost Happened,” has ingrained itself so deeply and so indelibly into the public consciousness to this very day, that it is no exaggeration to say that it
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changed an entire nation of people.
Even the world’s highly-esteemed professor, Jim Willis, Ph.D, who has taught at the university level for over three decades and served 6 lecture tours for the U. S. State Department, goes so far as to say that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a leading “media moment that changed America.”
But, was the Cuban Missile Crisis truly a close dance with the apocalypse? Was the total destruction of human civilization truly at risk, back then? As Professor Stern notes: “Never before or since, has the survival of human civilization been at stake in a few short weeks of dangerous negotiations.” This is the crossroads of apocalyptic thinking where many military historians and contemporary secular scholars, today, begin to part company from Stern’s end-of-the-world scenario. An
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ever-growing consensus among the most august military and secular academicians now see things completely different than the near-ending of human civilization.
According to many of the most qualified minds, both then and now, the Cuban Missile Crisis was nowhere near the end of the world, nor was it anything that resembled any apocalypse, even if nuclear war was unleashed to its fullest capacity. (The apocalypse is commonly used to refer to the so-called “end-time scenario” or to the “end of the world in general.”) Make no mistake, the Cuban Missile Crisis was a most significant moment that would have changed the entire world had a full-scale nuclear exchange developed between the Soviet Union and the United States. Declassified documents clearly show many White House personnel wonder-
ing aloud, “Will there be a tomorrow?” And rightfully so. On record, U. S. Defense Secretary at the time, Robert S. McNamara, said he wondered out loud if he, “would live to see another Saturday night?”
Certainly for millions of people, if nuclear war had broken out, there would most certainly not have been another tomorrow.
COULD WE HAVE SURVIVED A NUCLEAR WAR WITH RUSSIA IN 1962? Placing popular public opinion aside and allowing this question to become an ‘open forum’ for qualified military and secular historians to address, the overwhelming and conclusive answer may surprise, or even shock you. In 1962, we were fully cognizant then – and now – that a full-scale nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the
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