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Oct. 6, 2008 On an October evening 46 years ago, I sat before a 15” black-and-white TV and watched President John F. Kennedy address the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the end of the address, stock footage of aircraft, tanks and warships brought home to me just how serious was the crisis – for it was the same kind of morale-building footage once shown in movie theatres. Tonight I relived a few of those moments by watching (for the third or fourth time) Kevin Costner’s production of “13 Days”, a semi-documentary account of the decision-making in the White House during that time – much as, years ago, I watched a similar effort in a made-for-TV movie called “The Missiles of October”. Since 1962, two generations have been born and reached the age of consent. Watching the movie tonight caused me to wonder how many of them have even the slightest knowledge of what happened during those days and how close the world stood to the brink of nuclear war. To briefly recap: Soviet adventurism was on the march in many corners of the world and Chairman Khrushchev pushed the envelope by installing medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba – just 90 miles from our shores. These missiles could carry a three-megaton warhead and were capable of reaching every U.S. population center except Seattle. When the adventure became known, due to over flights by U.S. spy planes that clearly showed the construction of missile launching sites, the immediate reaction by the military and by many in Kennedy’s cabinet was to go to war: bomb the missile sites out of existence and follow up with an invasion. At one point during the crisis, military readiness was at DEFCON 2 – one short step away from a war footing. The movies detail President Kennedy’s route to a final decision but, perhaps more importantly, how he kept the situation from spinning out of control. Sadly, we may today be seeing a resurgence of Russian adventurism. Their recent incursion into South Georgia may be only the first step in a series of moves designed to see how far they can push our next president. So my prescription for those of generations X and Y is this: before you exercise your right to vote this November, watch one or both movies about the Cuban Missile Crisis or read one of the many books on the subject. The movies should be available at Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Netflix or whatever is your source for filmed entertainment and your local library or bookstore should have several books on the subject. The story will appeal to liberals for it does, after all, concern one of the most treasured Democratic presidents of all time. And whatever failings may have been attributed to him after his assassination, the bottom line is this: At the most crucial hour of the last century, the buck stopped with John F. Kennedy and he made the right decisions. My hope is that the story will also resonate with those voters who consider themselves “Undecided” and those conservatives who have a distaste for all things dealing with the Democratic Party. Spend a few hours outside your ideology box and relive a handful of the most crucial days in recent history and then ask this of yourself: If push again comes to shove, if Russian adventurism is again rearing it’s ugly head, do I really want Barak Obama and his hate-America friends making the decisions that affect my life and my future? ------------ About the author: Erv Bobo is a free-lance author. His current books THE VELVET BRAND, THE CHEYENNE BRAND and WESTERN STAR are currently available at Lulu.com. Email: Dasher1945@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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