In 1962, JFK was President, I was 15, and a sophomore in high school. For 13 days, we came thisclose to a nuclear conflict.
On October 24, Chairman Khrushchev replies indignantly to President Kennedy’s October 23 letter stating in part:
“You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather are setting forth an ultimatum and threatening that if we do not give in to your demands you will use force. Consider what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What would it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean guiding oneself in one’s relations with other countries not by reason, but by submitting to arbitrariness. You are no longer appealing to reason, but wish to intimidate us.”
On October 22 at 7:00 pm EDT, President Kennedy delivered a nationwide televised address on all of the major networks announcing the discovery of the missiles. I was listening, with my friends, to the speech on the radio, shaking in my boots.
Now we have Putin flexing his muscles, and Putin is no Khrushchev, and once more, I’m shaking in my boots
Thoughts of The Brothers Karamuttsov 