As the world celebrates the 62nd anniversary of the culmination of the Cuban Missile Crisis this October, it remains under the looming threat of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) with the escalation of missiles race loaded with sophisticated nuclear warheads. The prestige of Nuclear Club and the multiple zealot aspirants chasing the group of a few, adds a dangerous dimension to the [Mad Max]. Humanity took a sigh of relief, momentarily though, as an imminent war between superpowers was averted on October 28, 1962, following the announcement of Soviet Union’s premier Nikita Khrushchev to dismantle all Cuba-based Soviet missiles.
The architect of the idea of “Peaceful Coexistence” with the arch-rivaling West on the external front and reforms under the de-Stalinisation policy at home, Khrushchev was not alone in his quest to save the world. The restructuring of the home economy under Mikhail Gorbachev’s ‘perestroika’ and glasnost [openness] or democratisation of the Soviet political structure had not been easy given the closely watched far-left societies. Despite comrades browbeating at home and infuriated diehard Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Khrushchev went ahead with his peaceful coexistence agenda.
Both superpowers agreed to diffuse the imminent threat of war and in response to Khrushchev’s announcement on winding up Cuba-based missile bases and shipping them back to the Soviet Union, American President John F. Kennedy declared his Soviet counterpart’s decision as an “important contribution to peace.” Following the Soviet's agreement to remove IL-28 bombers from Cuba, the United States lifted the Soviet-demanded naval quarantine on Cuba and removed Jupiter missiles from Turkey the very next year in April 1963, according to the Office of the Historian at the US State Department.
However, the global Military Bureaucratic Industrial Complex (MBIC) prevailed in the bigger picture, as both Khrushchev and Gorbachev paid the price at home for their reformation, openness, and peaceful coexistence while Kennedy was removed from the scene following a successful assassination attempt in 1963. Whereas [The man who saved the world] from a nuclear World War III which was on the horizon over six decades ago, remained unsung under the dark for decades just like his B-59 submarines that quietly remain in the depths of sea 90 miles off the mainland United States during the standoff in October 1962.
Carrying a [special weapon], a nuclear torpedo, the oxygen-starved claustrophobic Soviet submarines, as they were after 7,000 miles sail from a top-secret naval base in Arctic Circle Particularly, they mostly remained immersed during the 13 days standoff on the coast of Florida, the situation took a dramatic turn inside the Soviet submarines on the covert mission. Despite blanket permission to act on his own, if the circumstances demand, Soviet Brigade Chief-of-Staff onboard B-59, Vasili Arkhipov, refused to shoot the nuclear torpedo in a nerve-wracking situation and [averted a possible World War during the most dangerous moment of the Cold War], underlined [Secrets of the Dead] chronicles.
The weaponisation of narratives in the post-truth era where the main battle ground has been transformed but not replaced by the psychological warfare of agenda driven fake news, the possibility of the worst use of sophisticated military hardware has intensified
The recent exchange of barrage of missiles between Israel and Iran in the backdrop of the US-supported and encouraged Israeli expansion of the empire, the meek response of the Arab world, and retaliatory Iran at the butchery of Gaza, is twisting the evolving situation further. Whereas an over-emphasised nuclear gaming and the intensifying hi-tech missiles race amongst the Nuclear Club members and the aspiring undeclared nuclear states of Israel, Iran, and North Korea with their rogue designs in particular, have once again brought the world to the brink of World War III.
The weaponisation of narratives in the post-truth era where the main battle ground has been transformed but not replaced by the psychological warfare of agenda driven fake news, the possibility of the worst use of sophisticated military hardware has intensified. Certain cultist world leaderships that thrive on narratives generated populism might require to be replaced with saner leadership for wise decision making at the global level.
The oxymoronic far right-wing leaderships in Israel, North Korea, Iran, and India in particular, and other such zealots, is needed in line with Khrushev, Gorbachev, and Kennedy who have been missed the bigger picture soon after their mega initiatives. Along with the intensifying missile race, the xenophobic leadership of contending Donald Trump pursuing a second stint in the White House this November requires better replacement, should the world be rescued from the possibility of extermination under emotive decision-making.
With enough sophisticated military arsenal stockpiled that can easily destroy the entire earth several times, and the complexity of the multipolar [New Normal] of the contemporary international system, the world ferrets out another Arkhipov to save the world from MAD amid impelling Neo Cold War.