[“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”]
Actually it was possible in October, 1973. Richard Perle(?) said so and I believe his reasons were quite valid.
The big difference in both those prior cases, we had leaders who recognized the danger and did everything possible to avoid WWIII. Today we have globohomos and neocons, drunk on absolute power, bumbling around either ignorant of the danger or hell bent on “winning” WWIII.