06/17/2021
Why History Matters!
People, in general, tend to do the same kinds of things, generation after generation.
I am only three years younger than President Joe Biden. So much of my life experiences are the same as his.
As a youngster, when I turned five years old, I understood that a great war had just ended, and America was still happily celebrating the fact that it was over.
In grade school, frequently we had "duck and cover drills" in school. The alarm bells would ring throughout the school, our teachers would instruct us to either get into the halls and squat down next to the walls, placing our arms over our heads - until we got an all clear, or the other thing we practiced was when the alarms sounded, we were to get under our desks, as best we could, and cover our heads, until the all clear! These drills happened sometimes every two weeks, sometimes once a month, so were a pretty regular part of growing up in the 1950's.
We were taught that the reason for those drills was that there was a great danger of Russia to suddenly start sending ICBM's, Missiles, carrying Hydrogen Bombs, to literally wipe us out.
During grade school, projectors were brought into our classrooms, and films were shown about what happens when nuclear bombs are dropped on cities. Other films showed the war in Europe, England, Italy, China and Japan.
We were taught to understand exactly how we could be incinerated in just a few short hours, should the world break out in full scale war.
For me, this all happened on the outskirts of Dayton, OH, near the famous Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Supersonic jets would be dispatched from the base, breaking the sound barrier creating house shaking sonic booms, during their drills. So quite often a squad of those jets would scream over our heads, the sonic boom sometimes broke windows, and were VERY painful to ears.
These things were terrifying to a ten year old - the duck and cover drills, jets screaming overhead, with no warning… the class might be doing math, science, or even in the cafeteria having lunch, when we had to suddenly scatter to find cover! For all of our young years, we were traumatized this way.
Image: Island of Cuba impregnated with ICBM Silos.
Oct. 1962, US reconnaissance flights over Cuba reveals Missile silo's being built ALL OVER CUBA, to hold Russian ICBM's, less than 60 miles from Florida.
Then the secret ICBM'S began to arrive, and be installed in the islands.
When President Kennedy was told what our spy planes uncovered, he addressed the nation on TV, and stated that positively we would not tolerate our close neighbor to be a Russian attack base, and that Russia had been told that any ships headed to Cuba, carrying these missiles, would be stopped and turned around, pointed home! This was the Cold War at its Zenith!
President John Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, went head to head on a standoff about the missiles being placed in Cuba. There were some VERY TENSE DAYS. Khrushchev was told to turn his ships carrying those ICBM's around.
After these secrets came out, Russia was telling the world that their excuse for the placement of nuclear loaded missiles was only to protect Cuba from the U.S.A, and possible attack.
It all got really crazy, and our very existence was balanced on the edge of a knife, so precarious were those days.
The fact that we are still miraculously here, is because Khrushchev backed down, turned his Cuba bound ships around, and subsequently reversed the silo building project.
All of this is part of Biden's history, as he met with today's Russian leader. Biden, and I, know that Russia can be, and has been VERY AGGRESSIVE toward America. Biden, backed by our entire Government is responsible for keeping the peace between our lands. We must be firm when Russia gets "pushy".
We always need to remind Russia that we will not back down if they try to dominate our country again.
We also know that during WWII, Russia and the U.S. were allies together, defeating Hi**er, and Mussolini - this also is part of our shared history.
There MUST BE a balanced peace between us, or else someone could press the panic button, that will end life on earth, as we know it.
We MUST always tread carefully on the world stage, and especially not accidently bring about a war that very well could end all of us.
There must be CLEAR UNDERSTANDING between us and our adversaries, to avoid a war that no one can ever win.
