In reality (you remember reality, right?) Pres. Kennedy didn't even call it a “blockade”, but rather a “quarantine” and the obvious reason was, it wasn't a “blockade” on Cuba — civilian ships to & from Cuba could still come & go as they wished. That's like Dementia Joe saying we were not in a recession after 2 straight quarters of NEGATIVE GDP growth.
A blockade is a blockade whether Kennedy calls it a blockade or not.
Rather the “quarantine” was to prevent Russian navy ships from reaching Cuba.
That's a blockade.
As such, it was only an “act of war” in the same sense as Stalin's Berlin Blockade of 1948.
Nope.
So long as nobody started shooting at each other, there was no war.
Shooting is not necessarily part of a blockade.
Shooing is war.
Those Soviet missiles in Cuba were fully exposed and within range of hundreds, if not thousands, of US bombers & fighter-bombers.
American missile sites were easily reachable by Soviet ICBM’s too.
In any shooting conflict, they'd all be destroyed within a matter of minutes.
And just what will happen to America in such a nuclear shooting war?
So they had no value to Khrushchev — none, zero — except for exactly what he did with them, which was use them as bargaining chips to get US Jupiter missiles — which could reach Moscow — removed from Turkey and Italy.
They were “of no value to Khrushchev so he spent huge amounts of money and risked a nuclear war for it?
Just keep telling yourself that.
Chuckle.
By the way, all those Jupiter missiles were eventually rendered obsolete by US Polaris ballistic missile submarines, beginning with USS George Washington (SSBN-598) around 1960.
Most weapons are eventually rendered obsolete by better weapons with superior technology.
Its been going on for thousands of years.
Try using your bow and arrow against a nuclear missile and see where that gets you.
Chuckle.
SmokingJoe:
"That's like Dementia Joe saying we were not in a recession after 2 straight quarters of NEGATIVE GDP growth.
A blockade is a blockade whether Kennedy calls it a blockade or not." BJK: "Rather the “quarantine” was to prevent Russian navy ships from reaching Cuba."
SmokingJoe: "That's a blockade."
definition of "blockade": "an act or means of sealing off a place to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving:"
So Kennedy did not impose a "blockade" on Cuba, since anything could come & go, except Soviet warships.
JFK called it a "quarantine" and I'm OK with that.
SmokingJoe: "Shooting is not necessarily part of a blockade.
Shooing is war."
Then we agree -- shooting is an "act of war".
Restricting the movements of enemy military is not necessarily an "act of war", be it 1948 Berlin or 1962 Cuba.
SmokingJoe: "American missile sites were easily reachable by Soviet ICBM’s too."
Only if you assume Soviet missiles were as functional and accurate as the Soviets claimed.
Perhaps... perhaps... Khrushchev was just wise enough to realize that not every weapon always performs as advertised?
SmokingJoe: "Try using your bow and arrow against a nuclear missile and see where that gets you.
Chuckle."
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