WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1987, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN c ýq7k MISSILE MADNESS We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of of world-wide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth - but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced. ...No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. ...The cost of freedom is always high - but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose is the path of surrender and submission. Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right - not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved. President John F. Kennedy, October 22, 1962 Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, these words were sent to all the world as part of an urgent address to the American people. It was not a simple statement of policy - Kennedy came extremely close to an outright declaration of war on the Soviet Union. The Cuban missile crisis is the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war and few events in the Cold War share the impact of those brief few days while the world waited for the Soviet response. I remember those days vividly. I was a student in Grade Thirteen.-Some of my friends had participated in the officer training program of the Canadian army during the summer and would have been called up if the Canadian army had chosen to mobilize. From this distance in time that seems ridiculous but in those few days the threat was real and frightening and those students were sick at the thought of what might lie ahead as were we all. The American armed forces were on full alert as the American blockade of Cuba went into effect. For the next few days we were presented with daily evidence that construction on the missile bases in Cuba was still in progress. A Russian ship with a cargo which the Americans identified as missiles kept on its course to Cuba. Kennedy had staked a position from which he could not easily back down. The Russians weren't backing down either. I remember thinking at the time that we had two little boys playing in a sand box with their war toys. Johnny already had a number of missiles on Ivan's borders but when Ivan tried to move some of his missiles to Johnny's side of the sandbox, Johnny threatened to smash everything. Childish perhaps, but that sandbox was the whole world and we were on the brink of being smashed. The power of two men, Kennedy and Kruschev, held the world on the edge of destruction. Brinkmanship had been part of the Cold War ever since the late forties and both sides had regularly rattled their sabres through the Berlin blockade, the Suez crisis, and the Hungarian Revolution. But not since the end of the Korean War had the rhetoric been so pointed and never had the implicit threat of nuclear annihilation been so direct. In a standoff with all the raw elements of a wild west showdown, the world waited for one side to blink. To everybody's relief the Russian ship turned back - the crisis was over. Back in the sandbox, Ivan had decided that he really didn't have anybody else to play with so he may as well play by Johnny's rules rather than not be playing at all. Although neither side will ever admit it, both sides must have given themselves an incredible fright ...and the rest of the world as well. Even though the Americans continue to fight the "red menace" in El Salvador and Nicaragua, it now seems quite incredible that the United States would take the strident position it did in the Cuban missile crisis. The United States had many similar weapons all over Europe all aimed at the heart of the Soviet Union. The Toronto Star in an editorial two days after Kennedy's speech speculated that the Soviet Union was merely trying to put an extra bargaining chip on the table to get the Americans to dismantle some of their Eoropean bases. The psychology of nations is conducted at a most basic childish level. The American response had a lot to do with their view of the Western Hemisphere and their sphere of influence in the Americas. Castro became a fly in the ointment when he over- threw Cuba's American backed dictator in 1959. The Americans were alarmed and tried everything to remove him - sabotage, invasion and economic isolation. Cuba was driven to get support wherever it could and the Russians (not too surprisingly) were willing to assist. The rhetoric of Kennedy's speech on that Monday evening 25 years ago talks of "foreign domination" and "puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which has turned Cuba against its friends and neighbours in the Americas" and "your lives and land are being used as pawns by those who deny you freedom." Twenty-five years later, the scene has shifted to Nicaraugua but the rhetoric is the same. Will they ever learn? Lt was a great speech - one of the Kennedy's best. Thank God we survived ta talk about it. 1 l I mm REVIEWING STAND FOR LEGION DRUM HEAD SERVICE PARADE, OCT. 24, 1937 Fifty years ago, Rev. E. Ralph Adye, Chaplain of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 112, organized a drumhead service in Centennial Park, attended by more than 2,000 Ontario war veterans. This picture shows the reviewing stand in front of the old town hall at Brock and Colborne Streets. Among those on the platform are Lt. Col. E. Oliver, Toronto; Major General J. H. Gunn, Toronto; Dr. Herbert A. Bruce, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario; and Lt. Col. B.O. Hooper of Hamilton. Dr. Bruce's speech to the veterans was broadcast on Toronto radio station CFRB and was probably the first broadcast ta originate from Whitby. 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, October 19, 1977 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS * Town council has voted to maintain Burns Street through Centennial Park, despite objections by neighboring residents. Mayor Jim Gartshore broke a tie vote on this matter. * The Town of Whitby will purchase the Bath property behind the Ashburn community centre for a local park. * Former Whitby Dunlops Coach Wren Blair has offered to assist the Whitby Iroquois Senior A Hockey Team. * The First Brooklin Boy Scouts are celebrating the troup's 50th anniversary. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, October 18, 1962 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS * Police are seeking youths after a mysterious fire destroyed Sawdon's coal and wood yard on Hickory Street. * Angry charges erupted at the Town Council over cutting of trees at the new Brewers' warehouse at Dundas and Athol Streets. * Hardy Boys author Leslie McFarlane will be the guest speaker at Anderson Collegiate's second annual commencement exercises on Oct. 19. * The 668 exchange replaces the old Mohawk-8 listing in Whitby's telephone books. 100 YEARS AGO from the Friday, October 21, 1887 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE * John Robson has purchased a 50-horsepower engine to operate the brick mill in Brooklin. * The Heron farm west of Ashburn hosts the annual S. Ont. Plowing Match vill on Oct. 28. * Duck shooting at Whitby Harbor is a popular sport. * The O'Donovan carriage factory at Brock and Gilbert Streets is to be sold to the Marti Manufacturing Company of Toronto for $1.200 1("k e fhetory. 1 mj 1 1