john f kennedy needed to chill out

It’s a lot more complicated than that:

1.) The missiles in Turkey were OLD by this point: Kennedy had wanted to remove them but the problem was he didn’t want to look weak as the Soviet General secretary tried to strong arm him and then put up the Berlin Wall.

2.) Part of it was that the Soviets didn’t admit it like the US did. We stated, plainly, “these are our missiles in Turkey”. Because Russia moved them in secret there was a fear of “well what if they planned to nuke us in secret?”

3.) The Soviets threw as much a political fit over Turkey but were physically unable to remove them or stop the delivery in Turkey. The US could, at least it believed, stop them from arriving. So it did.

4.) It’s important to remember: Soviet Missiles by this point took time to prime, and were only done so when prepared for use. The US saw the Soviets readying missiles: they were prepared to fire. THIS was when the nuclear threat became real: when there was clear evidence of intent.

Overall: Yes the US likely over reacted. No, the Soviets are not blameless and Turkey doesn’t absolve them.

It was humiliating because he fucked up the Bay of Pigs and then Castro now had soviet nukes 90 miles from US mainland. If he let it slide, it would be hanging around his neck that he brought on the situation.

Then combine that with the situation someone wrote more eloquently below about the difference of aging nukes in Turkey vs new missiles at our mainland border (besides Turkey is more than 90 miles from Russia even if not from the USSR in total).

Soviets absolutely never understood ‘allies’ vs ‘subjects’