- “The Cuban Missile Crisis was the best thing to happen to us since the Second World War. It helped us avoid further confrontation with the Soviets; it resolved the Berlin issue; and it established a new basic understandings about U.S.-Soviet interaction. Sometimes the gambles you take pay off.” (p. 104)
Lesson: The Cuban Missile Crisis gamble paid off: it helped the U.S. avoid further confrontation with the Soviet Union.
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- “If I took the risks of nuclear war to be McNamara’s one in fifty, I’d conclude that the risks were worth taking if the risks were greater than one in fifty with things going on as they were in Berlin and elsewhere. The answer to Al’s question “Do we want the crisis?” is yes. Now, that doesn’t make me a hawk; I worry enough about nuclear war that I am willing to take a one-shot risk to reduce the risks over the long run.” (p. 104)
Lesson: High risk actions are sometimes justified to reduce long-term risks.
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- “The stress of responsibility may simply make a very great deal of difference.” (p. 105)
Lesson: Be aware of the effects of stress on participants in the crisis.
Cited in James G. Blight and David Welch, On the Brink: Americans and Soviets reexamine the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Hill and Wang, 1989).
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