Written by Siddhant Sharma

On 24 February 2022 at about 05:00 EET, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced what he is calling a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Minutes later, explosions were reported across Ukraine, including Kyiv, the national capital. On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his forces decided not to give up. Putin has even put his nuclear deterrent forces on alert. The world is witnessing the largest military attack in Europe since the Second World War.

You are well aware of these events but I'd like to share a similar story where the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a tense 13-day political and military standoff and the world was on the brink of witnessing a full-scale nuclear war. This is the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were competing to counter each other's influence in the world. In Cuba, a Latin American island nation, a successful revolution between 1953 and 1959 brought Fidel Castro to power. Castro was openly allying with the Soviets and the US couldn't afford a communist country near its borders. The then US Government, headed by John F. Kennedy had been publicly embarrassed by the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, which was aimed to overthrow Castro from power. Several of these failed attempts to topple the communist regime only succeeded in making Cuba more communist. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro turned to the Soviets for protection against US aggression. In 1962, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev struck a secret deal with the Cubans to station no less than 40 nuclear-tipped ballistic cruise missiles on Cuba, defended by a larger Soviet garrison and numerous anti-aircraft batteries.

Okay, Cuba had a reason to ask for Soviet help, but why were the Soviets interested in Cuba?

Khrushchev claimed that he provided Cuba with nuclear weapons to protect it from US aggression and alter the balance of power favouring the Soviet Union. But there was another reason for the Soviets to place missiles in Cuba. The US had placed Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, and the Soviet territory was in the range of these missiles. The Soviets wanted the missiles in Cuba as a counter to the American missiles in Italy and Turkey.

(Photo courtesy: wikipedia.org) A photograph showing Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, their transports and tents for fueling and maintenance

But the Soviet plan didn't remain a secret for long. On 14 October 1962, photographs by an American U-2 spy plane revealed missile installation sites in Cuba. The strategic implications of these weapons were enormous as these missiles could easily target New York City and Washington, D.C. Kennedy was advised to carry out an airstrike on the missile sites, followed by an invasion of the island nation. These steps would have meant an invitation to the Soviets for an all-out war, this is why Kennedy decided to choose a less aggressive course of action. He ordered a naval "quarantine" on 22 October 1962 to prevent any more missiles from reaching Cuba and demanded the removal of the already delivered missiles. By using the term "quarantine" rather than 'blockade' (which is considered an act of war), the US was trying to avoid the implications of a war. Backup plans were made for a full-scale invasion of Cuba and a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, in case the Soviets refused to remove the missiles and responded militarily to Kennedy's demands.

Over the course of approximately two weeks, Kennedy and Khrushchev negotiated a peaceful outcome to the missile crisis. Publicly, the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement to not invade Cuba again. But secretly, the US also agreed to remove its Jupiter missiles from Italy and Turkey.

Throughout these negotiations, Khrushchev didn't consult with Castro. For Castro, this was humiliating as he had hoped to negotiate the closing of the US naval base at Guantanamo and a stop on the U-2 spy flights over Cuban territory.

Today is a similar situation where Russia thinks that if Ukraine joins NATO or the European Union, it'll be surrounded by the US and its allies on its western borders. This will be a big security threat for them as Moscow will become vulnerable. This is a similar situation that the US faced in 1962 when their capital was under the radar of the Soviet missiles. Ukraine too has a compulsion to ally with the US and Europe because of the Russian aggression. This is similar to where Cuba had to ally with the Soviets because of the American aggression. At that time the Americans didn’t have any option other than either invasion or blockade. And now the Russians have the compulsion to invade Ukraine. Point to be noted, I'm in no way trying to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has no right to invade a sovereign nation. But when the United States of America and Europe try to lecture and police other countries, they need to be shown the mirror. Before commenting on Russia the US should look at its own past actions.

When there is a deadlock at the headlock of corona and politics....

[Continued].... the people of India have to resort to voting at the expense of their life; political ideologies incarnate into political idiosyncrasies incarcerating the idea of the 'Union of States'; a relay race of shifting responsibility without a finishing point takes place between the government of a State and the government of India and the arrival of many other alike beings take place.All when summed up makes the life and limbs of the common people susceptible to the ears and eyes of the COVID-19.History is a witness, which when called upon, has reiteratedly enunciated that war and crisis makes a government unipersonal. Such power then suffuses over every branch, for instance, Reporters Across Borders purported that 38 countries have hijacked freedom of the press.Many governments have enacted emergency laws to address the pandemic, like new powers of detention, closing non-essential businesses, limiting public gatherings and movement, monitoring the streets to ensure they remain inside.Some countries have also invoked emergency like Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova and Romania. These actions though made in good faith have inseparable repercussions, for instance in Philipines, people are violently detained, belaboured and even killed for being cold with the restrictive orders, and when the actions of the authorities were questioned they justified themselves by colouring their cause of actions with unintelligible crayons. Miniscule of Confrontations has also been witnessed between the armed forces and people in the United States, Greece and Germany.It is a watertight proposition that lockdown has sent the human rights in hibernation though such has been done with good intentions. Still, severing the accountability from the largest picture of lockdown was a cancerous dream that indeed took the form of reality.In India, the largest picture was the inexplicable ever walking hunger march of the migrant workers which perhaps would remain a never-ending march for their families. The government of a state has invested their burden to another state stating the workers are not domiciled in their state. But that is why they are called migrant workers, not just workers. In such circumstances, the centre had graced the situation with absolute silence even though they have conveyed ration to the states but had not pressed anything for the migrants. At that time the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, deemed fit to take a resolution of disappearing with the sunset and not to rise with the sun.Are not these instances exemplifying the uninterrupted dictation of the governments?During the election this year, a newspaper in its print considered voting as the 'dance of democracy'. But I think it was a curtain-raiser. The subsequent substantive of the story was the 'uninvited dance of life shedding'.Politics in simpler and unharmful terms are disagreements that are conciliated and reconciled by deliberations.But here exists palatable incommunicado between the people in power due to their political constipation. But their speeches at biggish stages were that incandescent that it called upon horde of people to throng in their sabhas.Later, it was understood that people were there to assuage their stomach emptiness, not to imbibe the rhetorics of ever germinating politicians, because the number of people who were present there in a party's sabha did not commensurate with the number of votes that the party has received.The pandemic had a huge impact upon the economy, resulting in the imbalance of an already imbalanced socio-economic structure of the society which has been the blue and black to those people whose stomach's appetite solely compliments their daily actions.Comparing the GDP havoc endured by the countries, to approximate one country's efficacy over another against this pandemic is unwanted because every country has been unavoidably compelled by the virus to receive its invitation of downfall in every aspect, and the attendance of the people of some countries to such invitation has been either more or less but not null.Yes, it is indisputable that unemployment, societal disjunction, hunger, domestic violence, depression, etc., all together have increased. But can anybody assert that these were never there before this pandemic? I think the answer would be a big NO.'Health is wealth.' When we say this, things like unemployment and poverty are very much present, thus, we don't have a vibrant economy and the corollary is 'no wealth'. Hence, the other name of 'health is wealth' is, "as there is no wealth there is no health".Some say that a vibrant health system would not have been a guarantee against this pandemic. Yes, indeed, it could not have been a guarantee but it could have been a warranty, that is assurance rather than the commitment, that is guarantee. But here, the government knows that a vibrant health system could not be a shield of guarantee without even trying to make it happen. The drops of Astrology and drops of science are both in positives. Therefore they repel each other.The game of touchable and untouchable, black and white, etc. have been widely familiar for human beings across the world. Like in India, the 'so-called upper castes' purport that they would be contaminated if they come into contact with the 'untouchables' and somewhat similar reasons are for the differences between the whites and blacks. Hence, its a game of illusory contagiousness. But the game is a bit different in the case of COVID-19. If an 'upper caste' person comes into contact with an 'untouchable', he would not get contaminated because in the light of science, there is no trace of contamination. But yeah, those people could get mentally contaminated as they claim to be. In contrast to such, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which spreads COVID-19) can spread to all humans. Yes, you've again read it correctly, HUMANS. It does not discriminates between touchables and untouchables or whites and blacks, and one more point, this contamination can take the lives of the people, whereas in the previous case, the mentally contaminated ones take the lives of those who had 'contaminated' them as a compensation for their illusory damages.And what politics does in such cases, it encashes such disaster to transform it into a never-ending one for the sake of meeting their political ends, where end means an extension of infinite hedonism with sheer impunity.But this time, politics has averted from the game which was unfolding against the healthcare personnels. Why? Because such a game would have inflicted everyone including politics. Therefore, politics obituaries for its administrators and not for those who have chosen politics to govern them.Let's talk about the elections. Were there no ways available to cherish democracy other than to conduct the elections in this pandemic? If no, then were there no ways left for the politics to witness people's throng without creating the opportunity for the people to reach out to politics physically? Was it needed to apprise people about their past and would be, via rallies?Many in the history of India had shed blood to earn freedom, we, the people of India have tenaciously deliberated to gift ourselves a written Constitution and democracy is a vital cog of it. As said that voting is a 'dance of democracy' and to actualize democracy, elections are conducted. "Had the framers of our constitution ever conceived the thought of witnessing such dance at the expense of people's life?"We are so determined to see the dance of democracy that we have forgotten to evoke the gorgeous dance of the celebrities. At least such would have impeded us to witness the buffoon dance of the politicians and perhaps could have protected lives, but yes, the latter can be witnessed free of cost and also with a toast of food. And why not? It is performed every five years.The multi-polarization of political beliefs at the expense of uniform goal in national interest and discrimination of religious beliefs have now been adjoined by the discrimination of the technological accessibility of people as there has been seen a sharp division among classes regarding the technological means.Has this pandemic compartmentalized human beings in every aspect? The answer seems to be still under construction.The deadlock at the headlock of corona and politics may completely end one day but for the time being, the relaxation of the deadlock is in progress at the effacement of the population.But the question that will remain to be discussed is, "What would happen after the clearance of the deadlock at the headlock of COVID-19 and politics". As of now, COVID-19 is in a headlock with politics and vice versa. But after the expungement of the pandemic, will the headlock by politics to the livelihood of people, would remain? Headlock by rich to the poor, employment to unemployment, vibrant medical structure to precarious medical structure, etc? The future would author and the past would readout.The gravitation of the earth pulls people down for the sake of stability. But the human structured rockets supersede this pull to expel itself from the earth to the space. We human beings are not rockets. Therefore no one is more and no one is less in respect of being stable. Therefore one may discriminate against an individual in every aspect and respect other than the means of stability. Because stability is the law of nature but not of humans.Views are personalWritten by Hritam Saha(Edited by Siddhant Sharma)

The Drain Team

The Drain is a news, analysis, opinion and information initiative. We shed light on the overlooked stories which are shaping the contemporary world. We aim to bring out stories which are usually ditched and drained by the mainstream media, but are of utmost importance to the people.

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