‘Responsibility and Wisdom’ Restored Safety After the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; We Are Called To Do the Same Today

Oct. 30—A new documentary on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis (“A World on the Verge: Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis”) was broadcast on Russia’s Channel One today, in which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that the current generation of Western politicians are trying to “toy” with nuclear weapons irresponsibly. At the time of the 1962 crisis, he said, “Khrushchev and Kennedy found the strength to show responsibility and wisdom, and now we don’t see such willingness on the part of Washington and its satellites.”

A new article by Harley Schlanger of the Schiller Institute, “The Real Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis,” also focuses on the events of 1962, in support of providing people need-to-know history about how to combat the Global NATO nuclear war threat today (to appear in EIR Issue #43 for Nov. 4).

The nuclear war danger is the context in which to see the evil and duplicity on display in the Oct. 29 attack on Sevastopol, the Russian home port for vessels in use since late July to ensure safe passage in the grain corridor, for Ukraine foodstuffs exports. The Russian Defense Ministry yesterday reported details of the strike, and of the involvement of the British, specifically through actions of “British specialists in the city of Ochakov, Nikolayev region in Ukraine.”

Under these new circumstances, Russia has suspended its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Meantime, Russia announced late Oct. 29 that it is prepared to provide 500,000 tons of grain, at no cost, to poor nations, over the next four months.

No surprise, but still amazing is the fact that the responses over the past 15 hours from the U.S., NATO, the UN Secretary General and others, have been to ignore the attack on Sevastopol port and Russian ships altogether, and to black out or dismiss the Russian charges against British involvement. The new narrative is, as U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken asserted last night, simply to blame Russia for “weaponizing food,” and declare that the cause of any and all problems is Russian aggression.

Russia has requested a UN Security Council session on the Sevastopol attack for tomorrow, or soon, and meantime, the world community has plenty of evidence from which to judge who is sane and moral, and who are raving lunatics. The British have been called out by name.

It is still early on for agencies and experts to confirm the Russian reports on the British, but relevant specifics are starting to come out, which means the international experts can go to work on the marine, ballistics and intelligence story. The Russian Defense Ministry reported today it has fragments of the Ukrainian drones used to attack the Russian vessels at Sevastopol. The drones have Canadian-made navigation modules. The Russians state that the imputed trajectory shows a launch from near Odessa, and transit through the Grain Export Corridor, using the food shipping security zone to reach targets for attack.

It is cut and dried that the July 22 Black Sea Grain Initiative agreement (“The Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian Ports Document”) called for safety of ships, seafarers and ports under the International Ship and Port Facilities (ISPS) Code, which covers Russian vessels at Sevastopol supporting safe passage for the Ukraine food cargo ships. But the Global NATO warhawk line is that the port and ships are a valid “military” target, no matter about any agreements and code.

From these same quarters come the madmen issuing the new U.S. National Security Strategy and related defense documents, including the nuclear policy. Military and weapons specialist Scott Ritter calls the new U.S. Nuclear Posture Review “global blackmail.” In an interview today in Sputnik, Ritter states that, “The strategy that he [Biden] has propagated recently is a strategy that continues the past practice of having deliberate ambiguity about the conditions and circumstances under which America could use nuclear weapons, up to and including a pre-emptive nuclear attack by the United States in response to a non-nuclear incident. Basically, the United States is holding the world hostage to its nuclear arsenal, saying that we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons, any time we determine, under any circumstances….”

The nuclear war threat was raised directly to former President Barack Obama last evening at a packed rally in Detroit, with Michigan’s Democratic Party Congressional delegation and other state leaders all present. From the floor, an organizer posed the question, “Will you tell the truth about your role in 2014 Ukraine?” Obama could only fall back on stock phrases, attempting to pass it off as conspiracy theorizing “hecklers.” The exchange is the latest instance of how the controlled environment in the United States is being broken up.

Expanding the networks of associations and people working with the initiating group of current and former legislators for a new leadership drive internationally, is a task for all of us. Join the mobilization.