Putin Nuclear Threats Loom as Florida Recalls 50th Anniversary of Cuban Missile Crisis

Americans, especially Floridians, lived in dire fear of nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union for roughly two months in October and November of 1962 with the President Kennedy's formal speech to the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba, a danger not only to the United States on strategic grounds, but also a violation of the Monroe Doctrine.

Today, Americans again look to the East as Russia begins nuclear drills. Western powers may face a similar if less proximate threat by Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin's regime and his possible use of tactical nukes. And University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer contends that, in his own way, Putin feels NATO and the United States to be in violation of Russia's own "Monroe Doctrine" by weilding influence in Eastern Europe.

Pres. Biden's zealous fervor against Russia may, as he said himself, cause a nuclear Armaggedon. No one condones the behavior of Russian Pres. Putin. But the United States and the West must be realist and measured in the approach to Russia. Putin's military lacks the strength Germany's did (relatively speaking) during the Second World War, and Churchillian responses to the war in Ukraine miss the mark by far.

Extremes on both sides of the political aisle in the US cannot continue for proper solutions. Many Republicans suggest removing all funding for Ukraine, while Democrats press ahead with a blindly religious devotion to the Zelinsky regime. Despite the sad polarization of American politics, a few politicians over the past year, have called for caution, including Sen. Marco Rubio who pledged to advise a balanced approach with proportional responses to any attack on a NATO member during a recent debate with his opponent, Senator Val Demings.

It is true Pres. Kennedy's time in office is often romanticized but given the calibre of leaders at the helm of our nation today, Floridians and Americans would be right to long for his leadership again.