Forty-two years ago, America was in a stand-off with the Soviet Union 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Those two weeks were the closest the world had ever come to nuclear war.
President Kennedy outlined the 'clear and present danger' to our nation in his speech on October 22. He said:
"Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right-not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved."
As a nation, we believed him and trusted the administration had made a reasoned and difficult decision. Ah nostalgia. When I listen to our current president justify the war in Iraq and use 9/11 as a political marketing tactic to make us all afraid, very afraid, it almost makes me long for the certainty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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