Scariest sentence I have read in years...

[Grins]

As someone who lived through this as a 13-year old kid, this one rang my bell. We came so close in 1962, saved only by 6-8 men - on both sides - who thought there had to be an alternative and found one.

From the Booman Tribune on a possible nuclear confrontation with North Korea:

"I'm hoping this reprise of 1962 doesn't end badly, but Donald Trump is no John Kennedy, and Kim Jong-un is no Nikita Khrushchev."

"Donald Trump is no John Kennedy." So true. And "Kim Jong-un is no Nikita Khrushchev." Definitely; and with fewer restraints.

We are being led by a deeply, profoundly, ignorant know-it-all narcissist. A man who has complete lack of self-awareness about his ignorance! And he is faced with an equally profoundly, ignorant know-it-all narcissist.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2017/4/15/105746/634

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I simply could not agree with you more. Truly scary. n/t

[Honeycombe8]

14. +1. nt

[livetohike]

2. I was 10 years old in 1962. Old enough to be scared

to death! Trump doesn't have the intellect, demeanor or temperament to handle a crisis

[whathehell]

20. I.was eleven and was terrified..

I honestly feared I would never get out of sixth grade.

I wonder if our early experiences during the.Cold War make us more or less afraid of Trump?..People despise him, but I wonder how many are truly afraid? I'm scared enough to seriously consider leaving the country if he manages to stay in office much longer.


.

[livetohike]

26. I think you're right about our generation being wary

of Trump. I have made myself ill thinking about him and his incompetence. I have thought about leaving for Canada. I have a branch of my family that settled in the western provinces back in 1929. However, we moved back to PA to help care for our elderly mothers and until the situation changes, we have to stay here.

[whathehell]

27. ..and more wary of Russia, perhaps?

I do believe that the Republicans of yesteryear would have been ballistic about any Russia connection.

[livetohike]

29. Yes and yesteryear goes back to 2016! They are all

insane.

[whathehell]

28. You have family to look after..

understandable.

My husband and I, unfortunately, no longer do, so we're strongly considering an 'escape', if you will. I really can't imagine 4 years of him.

[Blue Meany]

3. Even with Kennedy and Khrushchev we would have had

a nuclear war but for decisions made by military on the ground (or in this case on and in the sea). In the Soviet case, an officer aboard a submarine, refused a command to launch; the captain had authority to order this if they lost contact with Moscow, which they did; and responded to depth charges with an order to launch. On the US side, I don't think any orders were given, but naval commanders took a number of measure to delay confrontation by moving their ships around in such a way as to avoid contact.

[progree]

7. I saw a different version on PBS - the flotilla commander was the no vote

Here's Wikipedia's which roughly agrees --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov

Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (30 January 1926 – 19 August 1998) was a Soviet Navy officer credited with casting the single vote that prevented a Soviet nuclear strike (and presumably all out nuclear war) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. ... As flotilla commander and second-in-command of the nuclear-missile submarine B-59, only Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision requiring the agreement of all three senior officers aboard.

More later on in the article under "Involvement in Cuban Missile Crisis"

There was no command from anyone anywhere to launch. Thankfully. But it was a scary 2 out of 3 "launch" votes.

On edit: it was the BBC documentary that I saw on PBS:

Missile Crisis: The Man Who Saved the World

[VigilantG]

18. Thanks for more info!

It is good to know our history.

[NewJeffCT]

19. great story

I'll have to look up the BBC documentary.

Oddly, I'm reading an alternate history story now of how the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into an actual nuclear war (Resurrection Day by Brendan Dubois) that takes place 10 years after the war - the US has devolved to a 3rd world country still under martial law, while the Soviet Union was basically annihilated and the fallout also devastated India, Pakistan and China. In the US, Miami, Washington DC, NYC, northern NJ, San Diego and several military bases were nuked. The US was turned into an international pariah because of it, only kept afloat by the British sending aid to us.

[Hunter Rose]

4. Perhaps we should arrange a play-date for Trump and Kim Jong-un?

Once they find out how much they have in common, maybe they can be twitter-friends.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. It's an all theater win-win for both sides who emerge as peacemakers

Posturing seems absurd with these personalities, but what else do they know how to do?

[smirkymonkey]

10. The problem is that Trump doesn't think. He reacts.

He's like the little kid who, because he is losing the board game, decides to pick up the board with all the playing pieces on it and fling it across the room, spoiling the game for everybody.

If he can't get his way, he is going to make sure that EVERYBODY suffers.

[Srkdqltr]

6. I was 20 in 1962

I remember being very afraid then. I remember riding on a bus to work and people talking to each other about the confrontation. We were all afraid. I'm afraid now. This guy is not grounded enough. He seems to think he is able to tell anyone in the world what to do and they will do it. Very scary times.

[QED]

30. I remember my parents and older sister planning

what they needed to take if we had to flee. They had a stockpile of stuff gathered under the basement staircase - sleeping bags, tents, etc. I was confused and didn't know what was going on just felt a lot of tension.

[BigmanPigman]

8. The scariest sentence I ever read was "Trump wins the election" Nov. 9, 2016

[Amaryllis]

9. I just watched Thirteen Days about that very thing last weekend and was thinking the same thing.

We came so close then and were, as you say, "saved only by 6-8 men - on both sides - who thought there had to be an alternative and found one." I almost posted something about that after watching the movie but didn't want to be a rain cloud.

[keithbvadu2]

11. It was a cat and mouse game, sometimes played with little hints like a ship slowing down or drilling

It was a cat and mouse game, sometimes played with little hints like a ship slowing down or drilling circles in the ocean rather than speeding ahead.

http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/the-cuban-missile-crisis-on-the-brink-of-nuclear-war/

[red dog 1]

12. K&R!

Thanks for posting this.

[progree]

13. Scariest sentence I read in years: "If We Have [Nuclear Weapons], Why Cant We Use Them?"

Trump Asks, ‘If We Have {Nuclear Weapons}, Why Can’t We Use Them?’, 8/3/16
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-if-nuclear-weapons-them.html

During a foreign policy briefing several months ago, Trump asked three times in an hour, "If we have them, why can't we use them?"

[WinkyDink]

15. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev experienced first-hand the horrors of war. The current blowhards

have not. The latter kind is always the first to...

"Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war." (Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar&quot

[YOHABLO]

16. Tell me I'm wrong: but we didn't have to go and beat a wasp's nest (N.Korea)

Just another means of distraction from idiot Trump. That's right, let's have a nuclear war with N.Korea. That will get peoples minds off all of His corruption and maleficence.

[RT Atlanta]

22. you're precisely correct

this is nothing more than the drumbeat of a war.

An insignificant, bankrupt and starving country that can only focus on outward 'enemies' to prop up the internal regime (and no, I am not talking about USA... yet).

Our problem (thank you deplorables and Russian hackers) is that we have a 4th grader in the White House with pre-senile dementia who responds with threats and provocations in a like-kind manner.

This is where I am HOPING that cooler heads will prevail.

Time will tell....

[Lifelong Protester]

17. Spent two days in a bomb shelter in '62

as our family was worried.

[DK504]

21. I was 3 months old

My then 29 year old mother was trying to figure out how to collect her children within the 20 minute time limit before the bombs started dropping. I can't even imagine that kind of terror.

[90-percent]

23. Trump's age

He was 15, old enough to reason and comprehend. I was 8 and lived through this history and have been horrified my entire life at the possibility of any nuclear war.

For Dolt 45 to say "if we have nukes why arent we using them?" shows an astonishing ignorance and lack of imagination. Nukes were always the real monster under the bed.

Ivanka should make her dad watch this tv movie. "This is what will happen to the world if you do this, Daddy."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After


-90% Jimmy

[progressoid]

24. "He was 15, old enough to reason and comprehend."

He was busy playing pretend military and bullying his classmates at the time.

There is no reason and comprehension in his life.

[Nitram]

25. One consolation is that there are a number of carreer military personnel between the leader and

the launch of a nuclear weapon.