- “Anyone with common sense will ask: since the rockets were introduced, why did they have to be withdrawn afterwards? And in as much as the rockets were withdrawn afterwards, why had they to be introduced before? According to you, there was a great deal of finesse in first putting them in and then taking them out . . . . But where is the [United States] guarantee [not to invade Cuba]? Unfortunately, you do not seem to have much confidence in that . . . . The Soviet leaders blame China for not having supported them as an ally should. You had better look up the documents. Was there anything you did right during the Caribbean crisis on which we did not support you? You are dissatisfied, but what exactly did you want us to support?” (384)
Lesson: Placing missiles in Cuba and pulling them out as they did was a blunder by the Soviets that achieved little, except a undefined American pledge not to invade Cuba.
Chinese Statement on Cuban Missile Crisis, September 1, 1963, in William E. Griffith, The Sino-Soviet Rift (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1964).
————————————————————————–