- “The superpowers share one overriding interest: the prevention of catastrophic nuclear war….Thus, the superpowers have a powerful interest in communicating their interests clearly, understanding their respective needs, clarifying the norms and principles governing their behavior in the international arena, and doing their best to ensure that potential conflicts are identified and defused well in advance.” (p. 318)
Lesson: One must effectively communicate with one’s adversary before a crisis. This will expedite identification and mitigation of potential sources of tension.
————————————————————————–
- “In 1962, the superpowers had not yet worked out the rules of the road governing such novelties as a Marxist regime in the Western Hemisphere or overseas Soviet military bases. Nor had the two countries yet appreciated the significance of crisis stability; the importance of fast, direct communications between Washington and Moscow; the decreasing utility of force as an instrument of policy. (319)
Lesson: The Cuban Missile Crisis reveals the importance of crisis stability and of direct communication. Furthermore, the crisis revealed how threats of military force lost its potency during the nuclear are.
————————————————————————–
- “If there is one major theme common to all three parts of our journey, therefore, it is the significance of the burden of responsibility. That the policymakers at Hawk’s Cay felt this burden so powerfully, while the scholars there felt it not at all, primarily accounted for the gulf between their understandings of the event. It was also the burden of responsibility…that primarily account for the many differences between the hawks’ and the doves’ approaches to the crisis. And it was the burden of responsibility, shared by Kennedy and Khrushchev, which more than anything else enabled the two…to bring the most dangerous confrontation of the nuclear age to a successful, peaceful resolution.” (p. 319-320)
Lesson: The shared burden of responsibility of the two leaders facilitated the resolution of the crisis.
————————————————————————–
- “First, recognizing the positive role of the burden of responsibility in crisis management underscores Robert Kennedy’s observation in Thirteen Days – that the wisdom of the President’s decision was vitally dependent upon the amount of time he had to formulate a response to the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba – though time may not have been vital in the way most of us assumed.” (p. 320)
Lesson: In a crisis, it is important for the president to take time to deliberate on all possible courses of action, not to rush to a quick decision.
————————————————————————–
- “Effective crisis management requires taking time to formulate one’s own responses, giving the adversary time to find the cooperative and peaceful way out, and, as Sun Tzu stressed in the Art of War, building golden bridges behind the enemy.” (p. 321)
Lesson: It is important to take time to deliberate in a crisis, as well as to give your adversary time.
————————————————————————–
- “Don’t push your luck; and don’t be too slow.” (332)
Lesson: The President should not hesitate to act for too long.
James G. Blight and David Welch, On the Brink: Americans and Soviets reexamine the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Hill and Wang, 1989)..