The world is facing grave dangers

Jan 31, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,
This year marks 60 years since the world came to the very brink of nuclear war. The event has come to be known as the “Cuban Missile Crisis”. We now know from the documents released from the US State Department, the Kennedy papers and more recently from the archive in the former Soviet Union that we were really on the edge of a precipice.
Had such a war broken out human life, according to scientists, would have been extinct.
It is important to recall the reasons for that terrible crisis it still has a lot of lessons for today. It was during the period of the cold war. The US was trying to get missiles close to the USSR as possible. They installed weapons in Turkey which was on the border of the then USSR.
At about the same time the Cuban Revolution occurred. The new Cuban government, headed by Fidel Castro announced that the Cuban Revolution was a socialist revolution, just after the attempted invasion at the Bay of Pigs, in 1961. The government then proceeded to develop very close relations with the Soviet Union, then regarded as the leader of the Socialist world.
The USSR recognised the hostility of the US administration to Cuba and decided to take advantage of the situation. It persuaded the Cuban administration to allow it to install missiles on the island for Cuba’s protection from an American invasion. That was not the only reason.
The other position was that the USSR grasped at the opportunity to move its missiles closer to the US, as the US had done to the USSR.
On discovering missiles on the Island, the US felt very threatened for the first time of its history. This was because while the United States fought many wars, they were always thousands of miles away from its borders. The Second World War, the Korean War and Vietnam were very far away from the US. In 1962, for the first time, they had such devastating weapons only 90 miles from its borders. It scared the US administration and the whole population.
The Kennedy government reacted very strongly. It established a blockade around Cuba and they demanded that the missiles be removed. The US was ready to go to war and for a few days the world stood still in deep tension. I was a child at the time, but I remember vividly how I felt and the people around me felt.
Fortunately, we still had some very educated leaders who were aware of war. General Secretary Khrushchev was one of the commanders in the Red Army during the Second World War, where the USSR lost almost 30 million lives. He knew the horrors of war.
President John F. Kennedy’s experience of war first hand as well. The boat he was commanding was sunk and he almost lost his life. Apart from that he was a highly intelligent man.
Those two leaders, having gone to the brink used that experience to try to make the world a safer place. The first Arms Control Treaty came about as a result of that dastardly experience. The announced goal was to move to complete disarmament.
Sixty years is a long time in an individual’s life. It appears that as we move further away from 1962, we have forgotten how close we were to a disaster. We have moved back to the days when we want to construct international relations based on military might. So here we are now facing a similar situation as we did 60 years ago.
This time the table has turned. The US and its NATO allies have been surrounding Russia with military bases. The memory of how the US felt and how they reacted seem to be lost. Now they are pushing right on the Russian border, in Ukraine. Russia, as the US did 60 years ago, is saying “no way can we accept this.”
Russia knows the devastation of war. Every time it was attacked, by Napoleon or by Hitlerite Germany, it was in that same vicinity. It is therefore very nervous and is expressing the feeling of being betrayed.
This is because the USSR was told by senior persons in the US administration that should it allow the re-unification of Germany, in 1989, the NATO alliance would not move another inch to the east. That assurance was given orally to Mikhail Gorbachev the last president of the USSR.
That promise was never kept. The Clinton administration, aware of Russia’s weakened positions after the collapse of the Soviet Union, took advantage and began moving NATO ever closer to Russia. It appears that even though Russia had abandoned its Socialist system and became a fully capitalist state, the US continued to put pressure on it. The US has imposed numerous sanctions against Russia targeting many important sectors of Russia’s economy, etc.
The US even had a big hand in removing a government in Kiev that was friendly to Russia. The combination of these factors and more has convinced Moscow that the West has no good intention towards it.
It is clear now that the US seem to be determined that Russia must never become a super power again, that explains the constant imposition of inhibiting measures against that state.
In response to NATO pressures moving ever closer to Russia and the arming of the regime in Kiev, the Russians have amassed large amounts of troops close to its border with Ukraine. This has upped the ante and an ocean of propaganda has been opened by the powerful Western India.
While, completely ignoring NATO’s expansion, the media is presenting the news that Russia’s troops on its own border is a threat to Ukraine. Russia is being presented as the aggressors and the NATO as the saviour.
Listening to the various news from the BBC and CNN one gets the impression that those media houses are goading the NATO powers to attack Russia. The emphasis is to show strength. The media has created an expectation of war and more or less insisting that NATO must not back down completely totally ignoring Russia’s security concerns.
The talks that were held between Russia and the US seem to be the case that ‘the mountain went into labour and produced a mouse. No real effort is being made to go to the root of the problem which is security for all!
How will Russia react? No one really knows for sure. The options that it has are not many all of which can lead to war, possibly nuclear war. All are dangerous to the whole world.
It can invade Ukraine, either wholesale or in parts. That would lead to further sanctions and increase the possibilities of counter attacks and eventually an all-out war.
It can also consider attempting what the USSR did in 1962; make some military alliance in this region with countries which have problems with the United States. Three of these come to mind, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. Already the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Lavrov, has stated that Russia is looking to expand their relations with these countries. This is extremely dangerous. We know from what happened in Cuba, 60 years ago how the US is likely to react to that.
The situation is very dangerous and can easily spin out of control. Let us not forget that both World Wars have had their origins in Europe.
Finally, I am concerned of the deafening silence of the leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean, and other regions of the world.
This is very unfortunate, because if war breaks out we will all be affected. If it develops into nuclear war then we could all be incinerated. It is tragic that while this situation has negative global consequences only two countries are talking and the rest are just onlookers. This must not be left in the boardrooms, people must have a say.
Heads of States and governments should demand a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss this and bring it to a just conclusion. We must not remain innocent bystanders, after all we are all involved, and we could all be consumed.
Let us raise our voices, let us remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Regards
Donald Ramotar,
Former President

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