"In the opinion of another historian, Bruce Miroff, Kennedy's reaction to Krushchev's blustering revealed an acute inferiority complex, which the president manifested by a perverse need to prove his leadership capabilities. As a result, rather than ignoring or minimizing Krushchev's threats, as Eisenhower usually did, Kennedy personalized them and converted them into tests of will, in the process manufacturing crises that need not have been. "There was really nothing in that Eisenhower] era comparable to the Berlin crisis of 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962," Miroff observes, both of which represented the closest approaches to a superpower nuclear war during the Cold War. For whatever reasons, whether they were primarily ideological, political, or psychological- and all were important- in formulating his initial response to the Soviet Union Kennedy chose to emphasize Krushchev's bellicose actions rather than his friendly gestures. Only after Kennedy had proved to the Soviet leader that he was not soft on communism would diplomacy make any headway during his presidency."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Politicians from RussiaGeneral Secretaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionPoliticians from UkraineSoviet premiersAtheists from Russia
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ronald Powaski, The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 (1998), p. 136
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Nikita Khrushchev
52 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Nikita Khrushchev →
Related Quotes
"Yes, today we have genuine Russian weather. Yesterday we had Swedish weather. I can't understand why your weather is …"
"Finding a reason for an armed conflict now would be very easy, but finding a way to put an end to such a conflict wou…"
"Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in. (.)"
"When it is a question of fighting against imperialism we can state with conviction that we are all Stalinists. We can…"
"I am very glad to hear this, since I come from the Ukraine. From now on I can sleep peacefully. I will immediately te…"
"If Adenauer were here with us in the sauna, we could see for ourselves that Germany is and will remain divided but al…"
"A man emaciated by a grave illness is at first treated by doctors gradually. Food is administered to him in small dos…"
"The thought sometimes -- the unpleasant thought sometimes creeps up on me here as to whether perhaps Khrushchev was n…"
"I happened to read recently a remark by the American nuclear physicist W. Davidson, who noted that the explosion of o…"
"They say that the Soviet delegates smile. That smile is genuine. It is not artificial. We wish to live in peace, tran…"