Important consequences for PH of a less known nuclear crisis

WE have heard the harsh exchanges the last few months between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un concerning the continual testing of nuclear weapons by the North Koreans. Kim has claimed that he has developed a hydrogen bomb. We can only wait with apprehension as to whether this confrontation will lead to another nuclear brink, to the third such confrontation. Have you heard of the second?

Most people know the details of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader decided to install short-range missiles in Cuba that would put the eastern half of the United States under threat of nuclear attack. President John F. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba. Khrushchev backed down and pulled out the missiles. Not announced to the public at that time was the trade-off. The US agreed to pull out the Jupiter medium- range missiles based in Turkey in return for the Soviet pull-back from Cuba. However, the deal was actually one-sided, since the US was going to dismantle the Jupiter missiles in Turkey anyway. The intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) had by then been fully developed by the US making the Jupiter missiles obsolete.