China Hand — How Fidel Castro Almost Made Cuba the World's 5th Nuclear Power

Have a good laugh.

Recently, the tape recordings of the Oval Office discussions during the crisis were declassified and, according to Benjamin Schwartz in The Atlantic, yielded this priceless nugget:

On the first day of the crisis, October 16, when pondering Khrushchev’s motives for sending the missiles to Cuba, Kennedy made what must be one of the most staggeringly absentminded (or sarcastic) observations in the annals of American national-security policy: “Why does he put these in there, though? … It’s just as if we suddenly began to put a majornumber of MRBMs [medium-range ballistic missiles] in Turkey. Now that’d be goddamned dangerous, I would think.” McGeorge Bundy, the national security adviser, immediately pointed out: “Well we did it, Mr. President.”

This post is longish but worth the read if you are into history. It would be almost unbelievable if it weren't for the release of the transcripts.

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How Fidel Castro Almost Made Cuba the World's 5th Nuclear Power
China Hand