Sony Thăng : What really happened during the Oct 16-28, 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

A TEXT BY SONY THĂNG

■ The Cuban Missile Crisis is taught in American schools as the moment the World almost ended because the Soviets put nuclear weapons in Cuba.

■ It is almost never taught as :

The moment the United States discovered what it felt like to have nuclear weapons pointed at it from nearby, which was the permanent reality of every Soviet city that had lived under American nuclear targeting from bases in Turkey, Italy, and Britain for years before the Cuban deployment.

THE SOVIETS PUT MISSILES IN CUBA SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THE UNITED STATES HAD MISSILES IN TURKEY POINTED AT SOVIET CITIES.

Kennedy’s team knew this.

They negotiated a secret deal : The Soviets would remove the Cuban missiles, the Americans would remove the Turkish missiles.

The American removal was kept secret from the public for decades because admitting it would have revealed that the resolution of the crisis was A MUTUAL CONCESSION, NOT AN AMERICAN VICTORY, and that the Soviet position had a strategic logic that the American audiences were not supposed to understand.

● The lesson taught to American children :

Soviet agression : American resolve : Crisis averted

● The lesson the Soviets drew :

We deployed the weapons. We achieved the withdrawal of the Turkish missiles. We established that the American will negotiate WHEN THE COST BECOMES REAL.

● The lesson for everyone watching :

DETERRENCE WORKS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

THAT IS WHY THE POWERFUL ONES TRY SO HARD TO ENSURE IT ONLY FLOWS IN ONE.