The press center of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency hosted a presentation of a new book by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Russian Federation on International Affairs, a famous scientist-historian, dean of the Faculty of Public Administration of Moscow State University, chairman of the board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, Vyacheslav Nikonov, “1962. Khrushchev, Kennedy, Castro. How the world almost died.”
At the press conference, Vyacheslav Nikonov spoke about the reasons for choosing this topic, about the main factors that contributed to the peaceful resolution of the Caribbean crisis and about parallels with today’s military-political situation in the world.
“That moment in history, after which all of us might not exist, nothing at all might exist,” is how the historian described the situation that developed in 1962.
In his research, Nikonov attaches particular importance to the personal factor, namely the decisions made by Nikita Khrushchev, John Kennedy and Fidel Castro. It was on them that the fate of humanity could largely depend, the author of the book is sure.
According to the statistical data given by Nikonov in the book, at the time of 1962, American superiority over the USSR in nuclear weapons and their means of delivery was estimated as 17-fold. That is why, the researcher believes, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev decided to deploy Soviet weapons in Cuba in order to create a strategic counterbalance to the United States. The historian himself assessed such a step by the Soviet leader as very extraordinary, but extremely risky.
According to Vyacheslav Nikonov, despite the serious escalation of the conflict, Kennedy and Khrushchev, both war veterans, were able to reach a compromise, which subsequently laid the foundations for a nuclear arms control system.
Comparing the Cuban Missile Crisis with the current situation on the world stage, the chairman of the board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation noted one serious difference – the superiority of Russian weapons over American ones both in quantity and in characteristics. According to him, this is why Americans today are acting quite cautiously in relations with Russia.
Vyacheslav Nikonov named the preservation of communication channels and military-strategic parity as important factors for resolving the current crisis.
“America understands its weakness, and most of all we can scare them by winning in Ukraine,” the politician emphasized.