r/worldnews • u/Urmomsjuicyvagina • 26d ago

Russian warships will arrive in Havana next week, say Cuban officials citing ‘friendly relations Russia/Ukraine

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/russian-warships-will-arrive-in-havana-next-week-say-cuban-officials-citing-friendly-relations/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_wsvn
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753

u/MrsMacio 26d ago

Anyone have any 1962 flashbacks?

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u/[deleted] 26d ago

Yeah, what happens if there is a survallence flight that reveals missiles inside of Cuba?

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u/mtntrail 26d ago

Kennedy left a playbook I think.

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u/Ball-of-Yarn 26d ago

I get this is a circlejerk but Kennedys playbook was to de-escalate the situation by removing the nukes stationed in Turkey as a compromise with the Soviets removing the nukes from Cuba.

The closest equivalent would be for us to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine which would be farcical.

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u/mtntrail 26d ago

Having actually lived through that as a teenager and watched the Russian ships on tv, How he did it was not as important at the time, as seeing him stand up to Khrushchev and having the Russian ships turn back. We thought the world was going nuclear at any moment and it was an unbelievable relief to see the situation resolved without fireworks. Knowing in hindsight that there was a lot of negotiation and the Turkey compromise, the reference to a “playbook” was not literal except in the sense that he prevented an escalation into WWlll.

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u/mehvet 25d ago

The missiles in Turkey weren’t strategically vital either. Russia having missiles in Cuba would’ve been a far bigger deal. Especially since Castro may eventually have gained direct control over them. Even with the full accounting of history it was a huge win for Kennedy and the US.

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u/mtntrail 25d ago

The perspective that I had, as well as most ppl in the US at the time, was that Kennedy headed off what could have been nuclear disaster for the world. At the time he was highly regarded by many and his assassination was an emotional blow to this country that was absolutely devastating.

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u/mehvet 25d ago

That’s a view that holds true. Just because the US made concessions doesn’t mean it wasn’t a major diplomatic and geopolitical victory. It was a well handled crisis that resulted in a boost in American prestige when it was direly needed. Someone with a hotter head or weaker resolve could’ve easily bungled it and resulted in global disaster.

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u/mtntrail 25d ago

I hate to think of how it would have been handled by some more contemporary “leaders”.

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u/Initial_Cellist9240 24d ago

My nonna died in 2008. She still had his prayer card in her Bible. 

She wasn’t even a US citizen at the time of his death. 

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u/mtntrail 24d ago

He was such a charismatic and well spoken man. I don’t think there has been another president as eloquent in my lifetime. The Camelot trope was a real thing.

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u/Mazon_Del 26d ago

I've always kinda wanted to write a story that's about someone falling back in time and trying to improve things based on their knowledge of history...only for it to make things objectively worse because the history they learned is pretty much the propaganda piece that hides all the useful details.

"Oh, the Cuban missile crisis! Yeah I can help on this one! All you have to do Mr Kennedy is say no, play hardball, and they'll back down! You didn't give them an inch in my timeline!"

In actuality: Loads of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes to de-escalate the situation.

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u/Jorji_Costava01 26d ago

There’s a great book by Stephen King: 22-11-1963, which is about the Kennedy assassination and a guy going back to stop it, it sounds like what you’re looking for!

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u/AtomicBombSquad 25d ago edited 25d ago

Gene Roddenberry's plan for the second "Star Trek" movie involved the Klingons going back in time to save Kennedy because they'd discovered that this would change the timeline to one where their empire would be on top. Consequently Captain Kirk and company were sent back in time to stop the Klingons from stopping Oswald. They would fail to stop the Klingon agents from completing their mission, which forced Spock to go to the grassy knoll to take matters into his own hands.

Paramount, unsurprisingly, thought this was a terrible idea and replaced Gene, the guy that literally created the Trek franchise, with Harve Bennett. Harve had them kill the guy from "Fantasy Island" instead.

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u/Mazon_Del 26d ago

Thanks!

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u/dcoolidge 26d ago

It's also a TV show but the book is better ;)

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u/Annath0901 26d ago

I got fed up with that book because the protagonist kept fucking things up with the romantic interest by repeatedly lying to her instead of just fucking telling her the truth.

It was like multiple romantic comedies worth of miscommunication packed into one half of a book.

Maybe I should go back and try to power through it, because the premise is cool.

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u/RatsOfTheLab 26d ago

I find most of his books more impactful than the films made from them. With a film, you just sit and watch it. With his books, there is this huge sense of dread having to turn the page to see where the story goes.

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u/belzbieta 26d ago

I'd recommend the book, the rewind files. People time traveling and messing with history.

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u/Violet_Nite 26d ago

there's probably loads of behind the scenes going on to stop Putin from Nuking the world.

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u/Lots42 25d ago

I'm trying to remember this time travel book where the lady and guy tried this. And it worked out well. So well that history went in a wildly different direction and they could no longer predict the future.

On second thought, I think it's Replay by Ken Grimwood.

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u/bmcisme2016 25d ago

Diego? Is that you from Umbrella Academy?

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u/Over_Intention8059 25d ago

Like "Quantum Leap"?

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u/Mister-Thou 26d ago

The Soviets only put missiles in Cuba in the first place in order to gain first strike parity with the US. 

The distance from Cuba to Washington is similar to the distance from Turkey to Moscow. If anything, the US decision to base missiles so close to Moscow was the original provocation. 

Having missiles in Cuba was a completely logical move for the USSR to deter an American first strike.

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u/Monomette 25d ago

De-escalate the situation by removing the missiles that created the initial escalation. Is this 4D chess?

1

u/RyukHunter 25d ago

Conveniently skipping the bay of Pigs chapter of the playbook...

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u/red75prime 25d ago edited 25d ago

The closest equivalent would be for us to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine which would be farcical.

TBH, I prefer farce to tragedy. Even if the fcking playwright doesn't deserve it.

1

u/DurrrrrHurrrrr 26d ago

People fail to realise this was one of very few wins for the Russians over the US. This situation is nothing like that, one useless warship will just help the Ukraine by solidifying support in the US

0

u/silent_thinker 26d ago

How about we just don’t give the Ukrainians tactical nukes?

Because we’ve been considering it.

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u/Violet_Nite 26d ago

if usa stopped supplying weapons to ukraine, russia would have to succeed all territories including crimea.

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u/OisForOppossum 26d ago

To stay away from Dallas?

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u/mtntrail 26d ago

That one is in the last chapter

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u/Kaldricus 26d ago

You have to approach it with an open mind

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u/mOdQuArK 26d ago

I'm pretty sure the entirety of Cuba is within cruise missile range, at least the more advanced ones, so there are some options that Kennedy didn't have.

And Cuba itself is not a nuclear power like Russia is (given that the U.S. would completely crush them if they tried to be one), so it's not like they can retaliate effectively if they did anything that caused such a reaction.

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u/HillbillyTechno 26d ago

Try to maintain peace and get killed by your own government for it?

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u/JimBean 26d ago

The World needs another Kennedy.

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u/mtntrail 25d ago

It is hard to overestimate his popularity, charisma, intellect and eloquent public speaking. He had feet of clay like anyone, but he surely pulled a rabbit out of the hat on that occasion.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/mtntrail 25d ago

It was absolutely stunning. I was in French class in high school, when the announcement came over the pa system that he had been assassinated, my teacher collapsed to her knees in hysterical sobs. The entire class just sat there dazed. Eventually everyone walked out and stumbled into the quad where ppl were whispering, talking in quiet voices, a lot of sobbing. there were no further announcements and the entire student body just drifted out of the school. It was an otherworldly experience like nothing else I have ever known in my 75 years. Covid and 9-11 absolutely pale in comparison.

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u/bootselectric 26d ago

The irony of bringing up the missile crisis while the USA sends arms to Ukraine is beautiful

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u/C_Tibbles 26d ago

Remind me how many nukes we've sent Ukraine?

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u/bootselectric 26d ago edited 25d ago

Sent them to Turkey at the time lol

And invaded Cuba before the missile crisis haha

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u/WannaGetHighh 26d ago

The moral of the story is Russia can go fuck itself

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u/madtricky687 26d ago

Last I checked this is an American application and most of the folks I interact with on here are in fact American. Assuming your not let's just say actual Americans have a vested interest in their own country succeeding. If you wanna take a sympathetic side to Russias perspective I'm gonna assume that's your country of origin and I support you in that. If you're an American saying that.....grow up you're from here not there you're cushy life gets to happen because of our enemies not being as strong as us. Boo hoo what bullies we are poor Russia 😭

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u/breathingweapon 26d ago

Supplying an ally engaged in active warfare =/= positioning missiles to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocents as a flex against your rival

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 26d ago

It wasnt really a flex, it was in large part to counter the US's missiles in Turkey, which gave the Soviets the same concerns the US had about Cuba hosting nukes.

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u/mondaymoderate 26d ago

Which is meaningless now considering nuclear armed subs can pop up right off the shore line.

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u/gkibbe 26d ago

Or tungsten rods falling from space.

/s maybe

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u/Nerezza_Floof_Seeker 26d ago

Well they had boomer subs back then too, its just that the missiles carried by them werent as accurate, had shorter range than land based missiles and they carried few of them. But yeah nowadays boomer subs are just better (mobile + hard to find).