Joint statement on 20th anniversary
- “The crisis could and should have been avoided.”
- “When the importance of accurate information for a crucial policy decision is high enough, risks not otherwise acceptable in collecting intelligence can become profoundly prudent.”
- “The president wisely took his time in choosing a course of action…Americans should always respect the need for a period of confidential and careful deliberation in dealing with a major international crisis.”
- “The Cuban Missile Crisis illustrates not the significance but the insignificance of nuclear superiority in the face of survivable thermonuclear retaliatory forces. It also shows the crucial role of rapidly available conventional strength.”
- “If the crisis itself showed the cost of mutual incomprehension, its resolution showed the value of serious and sustained communication…Effective communication is never more important than when there is a military confrontation.”
- “There are times when a display of hard evidence is more valuable than protection of intelligence techniques.”
- “In the successful resolution of the crisis, restraint was as important as strength… It is wrong, in relations between the superpowers, for either side to leave the other with no way out but war or humiliation.”
- “When it will help your own country for your adversary to know your settled intentions, you should find effective ways of making sure that he does [both publically and privately]. This [secret] assurance [to remove missiles from Turkey] was kept secret because the few who knew about it at the time were in unanimous agreement that any other course would have had explosive and destructive effects on the security of the U.S. and its allies.”
- “A secret assurance is justified when a) you can keep your word, and b) no other course can avoid grave damage to your country’s legitimate interests.”
- “In any crisis involving the superpowers, firm control by the heads of both governments is essential to the avoidance of an unpredictably escalating conflict.”
- “The successful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis was fundamentally the achievement of two men, John F. Kennedy and Nikita S. Khrushchev.”
- N.B. Essay does not mention that the authors all opposed trade of Jupiter missiles in Turkey for Cuban missiles.
“The Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis”, Time, September 27, 1982, Vol. 120, Issue 13.
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