I’m really old and can remember standing in a phone booth at Ft. Belvoir, VA (we were on full alert) one cold and rainy October night in 1962 speaking to my bride-to-be in Cleveland a few weeks before our November wedding day not sure we would survive the night!
Fortunately, around the same time, TV journalist (yes, Virginia, there was a time when there were good people in that vocation) JOHN SCALI was in a DC coffee shop in a “back channel” meeting with the Soviet Ambassador. Somehow, Scali and the Ambassador worked out a way to avoid the threatened nuclear holocaust.
As for Fidel, I’m also old enough to remember the wry joke that accompanied his rise to power: “Castro got his job through THE NEW YORK TIMES!” The the glowing reportage about “The Robin Hood of the Sierra Maestra Mountains” convinced most folks here that he was a wonderful humanitarian, not a COMMUNIST who would establish a mini workers’ paradise and provide the USSR with a base in our hemisphere.
The NYT is STILL at it, aren’t they?
I remember Ed Sullivan interviewing Castro on his program.
He asked Castro: “Are You a Communist?
Castro: “No, I am Not a Communist.”
But he was!
I also remember the 1962 Blockade of Russian war ships heading to Cuba! It looked like we were about to launch missiles! War was just ahead. Everyone was nervous! People in Los Angeles were cleaning out the grocery shelves and heading for the hills, causing accidents and roadblocks! PANIC!
It was smoothed over and we all relaxed.
Then on Christmas Eve, came the report that NORAD had spotted something coming in over the DEW Line! The pucker factor kicked in! Russian missiles? Were we at War?
Then they showed a silly picture of Santa Claus with cotton clouds flying by.
I was upset at the scare, but relieved it was just a Christmas joke.
I still hate that NORAD Christmas Eve thing every Dec 23!