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History 101: learning from the past By
Roy Burton LOGAN -- History can provide lessons for the present, an expert on 20th-century politics said Tuesday in a lecture at Utah State University. Dr. Kendall Staggs, a visiting professor at USU, said the most important lesson to apply to modern times is "creativity and the exploration of numerous options short of or beyond war." Staggs' lecture was titled "The Cuban Missile Crisis After Forty Years: Anniversary Observances and Foreign Policy Analogies." Staggs said both sides in the debate over war with Iraq have used President Kennedy's actions in the missile crisis as support for their side of the argument. "Kennedy recognized that when you are dealing with weapons of mass destruction there are serious consequences," Staggs said. The conflict can be compared to the modern-day situation with Iraq, Staggs said but he cautioned against misapplying the analogy. Kennedy is used as an example both of a leader taking action to defend his people, while others point out what Kennedy did to avoid full-scale war, he said. "The Bush people and Bush himself have used it to say Kennedy showed everyone that you don't have to wait to be attacked before you have to do something, especially in this nuclear day and age, you have to take action," Staggs said. "[Bush's] opposition emphasizes that Kennedy found a solution other than military, and that he did not say 'military strike is our first option.'" Staggs said while historical analogies can be helpful in understanding situations, they should be used cautiously. Analogies can be very powerful argumentative tools but "the danger is misapplying analogies, of fighting the last war instead of the current war," he said. The Cuban missile crisis was the closest the United States and Russia came to beginning a world war during the Cold War era, Staggs said. He related the history of the crisis, beginning with the United States' preoccupation with Cuba as a strategic threat to the U.S. mainland. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had established a satellite relationship with the Soviet Union, which began sending Soviet troops to the island 90 miles from Florida. When the Soviets appeared to be on the brink of arming the Cubans with nuclear weapons, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade to keep the nuclear weapons from arriving. During several tense days both sides feared imminent disaster and war. Through behind-the-scenes negotiations, Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev managed to back away from engaging in a full-scale war at the cost of millions of lives. Soviet warships carrying nuclear weapons turned away and the U.S. agreed to remove warheads from Turkey, although the American people were not told of the U.S.'s concessions. While Kennedy had previously ordered the removal of the missiles in Turkey, he did not want to be seen as backing down from the Soviets. Staggs said the during the crisis, president Kennedy and his advisors used previous incidents as analogies in an attempt to understand the best possible course of action.
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