Free Republic

56 years ago this week, the United States and Soviet Union were on the verge of all-out nuclear war. Suddenly, American families learned that they were in the crosshairs of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles stationed 90 miles away from Florida, and virtually the entire continental U.S. was now moments away from annihilation. We know how the Cuban Missile Crisis ended, but how did it come about in the first place? During the early days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had a big problem: mutually assured destruction only works when both sides can assure destruction. The United States could target...

Ultra-partisan Republicans hate President Clinton. They hate the memory of President Kennedy almost as much. The men have a lot in common — smart, articulate, cool, educated at Harvard, both pointy-headed policy wonks, both charming, witty liberals. So the recent "revelations" about Kennedy's health (which reveal little that was not already known) have caused them great delight. Bushite speechwriter Peggy Noonan (the "thousand points of light" woman) chortled gleefully in the Wall Street Journal that if the media in 1960 had focused on the qualifications of a president they way they do now, Kennedy would never have been elected. And...