- “At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis…it had been relatively easy to stand up to the Soviets: Our nuclear weapons outnumbered theirs almost 10 to one; the Soviets took their missiles out of Cuba and Khrushchev backed down. But the balance of power had all been changed by the early 1980s. The Soviet Union was building missiles hands over fist, and their nuclear forces outnumbered ours.” (p. 295)
Lesson: Nuclear superiority was critical to the success of the United States during Cuban Missile Crisis.
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- “In 1962, JFK stood up to Castro and Moscow and blocked the establishment on Cuban soil of a Soviet missile base capable of hurling nuclear weapons at the U.S. Nevertheless, 20 years later, Cuba was, in effect, serving the very function that had caused President Kennedy to face off against Khrushchev…” (p. 472)
Lesson: A strong stand against an adversary is required in a crisis.
Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).
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