Quote:
Originally Posted by Gort
Actually we did not need the missles in Turkey to hit the Soviet cities Enigma, we already had intercontinental balistic missles as well as over 500 B52's, of which 62 were constantly airborne back then. We could hit their cities in a matter of hours without the missles in Turkey, so your expalnation leaves a little to be desired and misses the bigger picture. I can look at almost any historical event using the benefit of hindsight and find mistakes. It is not really all that useful when trying to determine the thought process of the time to go that route however. It is useful to see where we made mistakes, but at the time since yu so not have the benefit of hidsight you do not know they are mistakes, at least not usually.
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Gort, on the contrary, you have reinforced my point. I agree with you entirely that you did not need those missiles in Turkey. So why put them there if not as a provocation and threat?
Further, my point about them being a deterrent, perhaps I should have added - not necessarily for the defence of Cuba, but as a warning and deterrent to the US to not put more missiles in other places pointed at the USSR. Cuba could have been merely the pretext, especially with its close proximity to the US mainland.