Dear Editor,
Very few people can remember with vividly distinct recollections the “Cuban Missile Crisis”. Even I can’t, because I was born a year later. I know what my parents told me about it; and I have read history-books on the subject but I don’t think many people today can fully grasp the level of “Uncertainty”. Today’s TV shows, movies, and video-games have made ‘violence’, ‘killing’, and ‘mass-death’ so commonplace that it almost seems artificial. I have encountered relatives whose young children see actors or characters “killed-off” only to return to the screen seemingly unscathed by it all. They need to be reminded that the consequences of violence and death are not retractable. Death is “forever”.  
The Cuban Missile Crisis lasted from October 16-28, 1962; and it threatened to place the United States and the then U.S.S.R. on a collision course toward nuclear-war. It was a showdown between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, with Khrushchev shrewedly teaming-up with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in allowing Soviet missiles to be placed in Cuba, only 90 miles from American shores. The Soviets had long-range missiles aimed at American cities; but they manipulated a willing Castro to be their puppet. With such Soviet missiles based in Cuba, it would give the Soviets a rapid advantage of a “first strike” against the U.S.A.
The crisis was averted by President Kennedy staying strong; plus a few back-room deals to allow withdrawal of the missiles.
Sadly, President Kennedy was assassinated just over a year later. Khrushchev was deposed. A “trade embargo” was placed against the importation of cuban goods (including my late Dad’s favorite Cuban-cigars into the USA, cigars, that President Kennedy enjoyed as well).   Looking back, I fully see and agree with the rationale of President Kennedy’s decision on trade, Starve Castro’s regime. But as the decades passed-by, that ruthless dictator (and his brother Raul Castro, currently) aren’t starving: the common-people in Cuba are economically deprived and driving vintage 1950s-era American automobiles with a scarcity of spare-parts. I personally wish the Trade Embargo with Cuba was lifted now in 2012.
After Khrushchev, we had the stone-faced Leonid Brezhnev with his thick furry eyebrows who looked more like an Eskimo than a Russian. He was a treacherous leader who would review his military Troops from the Kremlin Wall. They marched in lockstep, even in bitter, snowy weather. Brezhnev was a genuinely rigid “Cold War” Communist. I think the only sane successor was Mikhail Gorbachev, (whom I have personally met and spoken-with). His grandparents were Orthodox Catholic; even though the Soviet-State officially became Atheist.  
When I was in high school, I had a civics teacher say that Russia was getting more “open” and America was getting more “closed” with regard to Freedoms and Liberties. I am as Patriotic as anyone, but I am mindful of Khrushchev’s warning that the United States will fall without anyone firing a shot. When he said that remark he sounded like a lunatic. We must (as a Nation) re-learn to keep our Guard “up” (eternal vigilance) and retain our Sovereignty and “Respect by other nations on the World Stage”.
Sincerely,
James A. Marples
Esbon