ght for the day: Why were the Missiles in Plain Sight, // (Steven Hayward)
This week marks the 60th anniversary the Cuban Missile Crisis’ climax and resolution. President Biden recently reminded Democratic donors that Putin’s threats to use nukes against Ukraine had brought Armageddon closer than ever since the Cuban crisis.
The Cuban crisis result was deemed a victory for JFK (an early achievement by the Kennedy publicity apparatus), since the USSR took down the missiles in exchange for an American guarantee that it would respect the integrity of Cuba’s pro-Soviet regime. This in turn ensured and enabled proxy mischief for the Soviet Union in Africa and Central America for the next 30+ years. Some victory.
Harold Rood once pointed out an anomaly in the scene in Kingdoms of the Blind.
It was indeed a strange anomaly. The Soviet foreign minister denied that his nation had any intention to do what it was actually doing. The missile sites were being prepared, and the missiles were erected without any attempt to hide or obscure the offending activity. The missiles had been identified by the Soviet Union military parades so that it was impossible for anyone to mistake them as anything else. The Soviet Army, a master of deception and camouflage, was unable to conceal a few missiles and their ancillary gear. This was the Soviet Army that was able to hide 2.5 million troops, 4,000 tanks, 24,000 mortars, and artillery pieces from the German troops in the 1944 offensive to liberate Byelorussia. This Soviet Army had also taught North Koreans how build bridges underwater to surprise United Nations troops fighting to defend South Korea.
A superficial inspection of the series U.S. reconnaissance aircraft aerial photos could reveal the nature of this installation and identify the weapons being placed.
It almost seems as if the Soviets wanted to see the missiles. Why would they want that? Conventional thinkers (i.e. most of our defense establishment and foreign policy, now and in the past) should not be allowed to speak out.
