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The John Batchelor Show

MOSCOW HAS RETURNED TO THE AMERICAS: CUBA, VENEZUELA, NICARAGUA: 4/8: Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Serhii Plokhy

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MOSCOW HAS RETURNED TO THE AMERICAS: CUBA, VENEZUELA, NICARAGUA: 4/8: Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Serhii Plokhy

https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Folly-History-Missile-Crisis/dp/0393540812/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, today’s world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis.

Serhii Plokhy’s Nuclear Folly offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground. In breathtaking detail, Plokhy vividly recounts the young JFK being played by the canny Khrushchev; the hotheaded Castro willing to defy the USSR and threatening to align himself with China; the Soviet troops on the ground clearing jungle foliage in the tropical heat, and desperately trying to conceal nuclear installations on Cuba, which were nonetheless easily spotted by U-2 spy planes; and the hair-raising near misses at sea that nearly caused a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine to fire its weapons.

1915 HAVANA

Transcript

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0:00.0

Sure, this is Peloton. This is a 15 minute low impact ride. But so is this.

0:07.1

We're here together for a 10 minute empathy meditation.

0:10.4

And even this. We get here in with a 20 minute hip-hop shadow boxes session.

0:16.5

Ah what more could you ask for? Well with thousands of classes on our bike treading

0:20.9

app there's more to Peloton that you might have thought.

0:23.8

This is Peloton. Internet Connection and Peloton all acts as membership required.

0:28.6

C1 Peloton. UK. This is CBSi on the world. I'm John Bouch to a Seri Ploki. Professor Seri Ploki's new book is Nuclear

0:38.0

Folly, a history of the Cuban missile crisis. He has transcripts from the tapes made by President Kennedy in his consultation with his

0:47.0

counselors before and after the Excom Committee of the NSC begins on the 23rd. We have notes from the Presidium

0:55.1

meeting. Kosegan's there. Bresnaf's there. Mikoyan is there and we will come

1:00.8

to Mikoyan because he like Adley Stevenson is a man who represents diplomacy and not war fighting.

1:08.0

During the week of following the revelations on the 19th brainstorming I'm following the professors reporting on the

1:15.4

20th Russ brings in gramico and they have a confrontational meeting with

1:20.9

president Kennedy.

1:22.6

Quamico has excuses claiming the R12s and R14s are defensive missiles.

1:28.3

On the 20th again, later that night, the committee comes together and they vote for a blockade. However, during

1:35.5

the course of that day the Joint Chiefs have spoken out, they're ready for

1:40.3

invasion. Upland 312.

1:43.0

Professor, who says Munich to the President of the United States and why does he say it?

1:48.0

Well, Gerald LeMay, of course, is leading opposition to President Kennedy.

1:57.0

And he is really quite, quite brutal and disrespectful in doing that.

2:05.9

He is challenging him in front of other chips

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