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I really wish Putin would give a long and hard think over the letter[1] that Nikita Khrushchev sent to John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. An excer
by usrme 5y ago
I really wish Putin would give a long and hard think over the letter[1] that Nikita Khrushchev sent to John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. An excerpt:
"If, however, you have not lost your self-control and sensibly conceive what this might lead to, then, Mr. President, *we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied*. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose."
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[1]: https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct26/doc4.html https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct26/doc4.html
- alkonaut 5y agoThe difference back then appears to be that while there were different philosophies (e.g.capitalist vs socialist) neither saw the existence of the other as an existential threat other than through war. Putin (And perhaps more Dugin or other Orthodox "influencers") now seem to think that the mere existence of a liberal ukraine (say, Gay parades in Kyiev) is an existential threat, regardless of whether it would ever spread to Russia proper. That changes the balance between a "them" and "us". To Putin this means there can be no status Quo. The russian Empire can't be humiliated by having a liberal /"westernized" part that also happens to be a historical cradle of Russian culture. If the premise of Russia(n leadership) is that it's better that there is no world at all than a world where Russia isn't an traditionalist empire including Ukraine, then the situation is MUCH harder to defuse than anything during the Cold War.