I won't claim Russia is remotely peaceful, but the Cuban missile crisis is an extremely bad example. The US had missiles in Turkey that could destroy the USSR [

I won't claim Russia is remotely peaceful, but the Cuban missile crisis is an extremely bad example. The US had missiles in Turkey that could destroy the USSR [1], but when the USSR responded in kind by placing missiles in Cuba, suddenly it was a "crisis". Why wasn't it a crisis before, with US missiles at the USSR's doorstep? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis "Another major reason why Khrushchev planned to place missiles on Cuba undetected was to "level the playing field" with the evident American nuclear threat. America had the upper hand as they could launch from Turkey and destroy the USSR before they would have a chance to react."