{"id":2349,"date":"2013-09-15T22:34:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T05:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2013-09-15T22:34:41","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T05:34:41","slug":"learning-from-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=2349","title":{"rendered":"LEARNING FROM HISTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most students are taught that the Cuban missile crisis was when John F. Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev and prevented World War III.\u00a0\u00a0 This is often referred to as Kennedy\u2019s greatest moment.\u00a0 But the reality is not quite that clear.\u00a0 The Cuban missile crisis began when the U.S. discovered missiles in Cuba, capable of hitting the U.S. that appeared to have nuclear warheads.\u00a0 \u00a0Kennedy ordered the Cuban blockade and after a tense standoff, Khrushchev apparently blinked and agreed to remove those nuclear armed missiles.\u00a0 Unfortunately the truth is very different from the myth.\u00a0 Khrushchev won this encounter big time.\u00a0 As part of the agreement to end the crisis, Kennedy agreed to let Castro rule a communist Cuba without interference from the U.S.\u00a0 Not only did Kennedy agree to not invade Cuba, he agreed he wouldn\u2019t support anyone else either.\u00a0 In addition, Kennedy agreed to remove nuclear armed Jupiter Missiles from Italy and Turkey.<\/p>\n

In case you question this, here is a copy of a letter Khrushchev wrote to Kennedy:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/microsites.jfklibrary.org\/cmc\/oct26\/doc4.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is an excerpt from that letter:<\/p>\n

Let us therefore show statesmanlike wisdom. I propose: We, for our part, will declare that our ships, bound for Cuba, will not carry any kind of armaments. You would declare that the United States will not invade Cuba with its forces and will not support any sort of forces which might intend to carry out an invasion of Cuba. Then the necessity for the presence of our military specialists in Cuba would disappear.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Khrushchev got more than that.\u00a0 He also got Kennedy to remove our Jupiter Missile from Turkey:<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

The confrontation ended on October 28, 1962,[7]<\/sup><\/a> when Kennedy and United Nations Secretary-General<\/a> U Thant<\/a> reached an agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba. Secretly, the US also agreed that it would dismantle all US-built Jupiter IRBMs<\/a>, armed with nuclear warheads, which were deployed in Turkey and Italy against the Soviet Union<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now we learn that it was even worse than this, which is pretty bad. It turns out that Castro actually kept some tactical nuclear weapons that Kennedy did not even know existed.\u00a0 It was Khrushchev who unilaterally disarmed Cuba, because he did not want to risk Castro starting a nuclear war.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/10\/15\/cuban-missile-crisis-unto_n_1967544.html<\/a><\/p>\n

So, in exchange for Khrushchev agreeing to remove nuclear weapons he didn\u2019t even want in Cuba, we gave Castro the green light and withdrew our missiles from Turkey.\u00a0 In other words, Kennedy got snookered and he knew it.\u00a0\u00a0 A bitter and angry Kennedy was determined to find somewhere else to take on international communism.\u00a0 He found it in South Vietnam, conveniently on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n

In the following interview with Chet Huntley, Kennedy explains his plans for Vietnam:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/dailynightly.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2013\/09\/09\/20405441-kennedys-63-pitch-reverberates-in-obamas-action-plan?lite<\/a><\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s die hard supporters pretend that if only Kennedy had lived we might have avoided the Vietnam War. \u00a0That may or may not be true, but it is certainly not what Kennedy said in this interview.\u00a0 It was Kennedy, not Lyndon Johnson, who was determined to make a stand in South Vietnam.<\/p>\n

The situation in Syria is d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.\u00a0 Just like Khrushchev did not want nuclear weapons in Cuba, Putin does not want chemical weapons in Syria.\u00a0 And, just like Khrushchev wanted Castro to retain power in Cuba, Putin wanted Assad to retain power in Syria.\u00a0 We still don\u2019t know the final result in Syria, but it sure looks like Putin will get exactly the result he wanted.\u00a0 We may or may not get rid of chemical weapons in Syria, but Assad is very likely to stay firmly in power.\u00a0 Any agreement to get rid of WMD is Syria is almost certainly going to require the U.S. to leave Assad in power.<\/p>\n

Oba0ma has been humiliated and embarrassed on the international stage.\u00a0 He has no support from either the liberal left or the conservative right.\u00a0 He also has no support from the international community.\u00a0 He ended up accepting a ludicrous proposal from Putin because it was his only option.\u00a0 He may pretend this is just great diplomacy, but even Obama knows he got snookered.<\/p>\n

This creates a very dangerous situation where Obama may be tempted to do something risky and stupid in a desperate attempt to appear relative.\u00a0 Both Obama and Kerry are starting to talk tough about Iran.\u00a0 I fear Obama may be desperately looking for his South Vietnam.\u00a0 Some place where he can at least pretend someone still respects him.<\/p>\n

I hope that I am wrong about this, but fear this is pretty accurate.\u00a0 I hope that those who are secretly rejoicing at the very public humiliation of Barack Obama will keep in mind that when he is humiliated, we are all humiliated.\u00a0 The Cuban missile crisis was bad enough.\u00a0 The Vietnam War was much worse.<\/p>\n

TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most students are taught that the Cuban missile crisis was when John F. Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev and prevented World War III.\u00a0\u00a0 This is often referred to as Kennedy\u2019s greatest moment.\u00a0 But the reality is not quite that clear.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nLEARNING FROM HISTORY - SCOTS HONOR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=2349\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LEARNING FROM HISTORY - SCOTS HONOR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Most students are taught that the Cuban missile crisis was when John F. Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev and prevented World War III.\u00a0\u00a0 This is often referred to as Kennedy\u2019s greatest moment.\u00a0 But the reality is not quite that clear.\u00a0 … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=2349\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCOTS HONOR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-16T05:34:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TDM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TDM\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TDM\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\"},\"headline\":\"LEARNING FROM HISTORY\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-16T05:34:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349\"},\"wordCount\":860,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Headlines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349\",\"name\":\"LEARNING FROM HISTORY - SCOTS HONOR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-16T05:34:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=2349#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LEARNING FROM HISTORY\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"SCOTS HONOR\",\"description\":\"What is obviously true, is obviously true\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\",\"name\":\"TDM\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"TDM\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LEARNING FROM HISTORY - SCOTS HONOR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=2349","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LEARNING FROM HISTORY - SCOTS HONOR","og_description":"Most students are taught that the Cuban missile crisis was when John F. 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