A second edition of Cuban missile crisis emerging over Ukraine
The United States forgets nothing and learns nothing
January 5, 2023
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
Re: “U.S. Troops Train Near Crimea, Sending a Warning to Russia,” (Front page article by Lara Jakes, January 4, 2023)
To the Editor:
In 1962, the Soviet Union sent missiles to Cuba to send a warning to the United States not to invade under the banner of Operation Mongoose after the Bay of Pigs debacle according to the Office of Historian, U.S. State Department. The result was the Cuban Missile Crisis in which the United States blockaded Cuba and threatened its adversaries with extinction if the Russian missiles were not removed.
President Joe Biden’s deploying 4,000 troops in Romania within minutes of the Ukrainian border and Crimea to deter Russia recklessly risks a Cuban Missile Crisis variant with Russia lashing back against our existential threat. Lara Jakes’ article should have engendered alarm of a Russian response with nuclear weapons. Instead, it treated President Biden’s provocation as justifiable deterrence of Russian adventurism.
Mark Twain observed, “History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.” The voices against Mr. Biden’s deterrence deployment should be heard and heeded.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of American Empire Before The Fall
300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 202-465-8728; 703-963-4968
Email: bruce@feinpoints.com