When I saw the headlines stating that Fidel Castro had died, I was immediately transported back to being nine years old. Castro was the President of Cuba until just a few years ago. If you want to know the whole story of how he went from soldier to militant to President and caused more US Presidents problems than any other leader, you can read it in the NY Times. I remember him as “that bearded man who wore an army suit and smoked a cigar.”
In 1962 Castro was friendly with the Soviet Union and Castro asked them to place nuclear warhead missiles in Cuba after the US tried to invade. If you aren’t a fan of geography, let me point out that Cuba is only 330 miles from Miami, so everyone was fearful. When the US found out about it, President Kennedy ordered a military blockade that prevents ships from entering Cuba. It was a 13 day standoff that had every American frantic. The US didn’t restore diplomatic relations with Cuba until 2015. I am not sure what our new President will do, although he has been unclear about his intentions.
In the 1960’s we lived the idea of nuclear war. We had fallout shelters although I never figured out how everyone in Charleston was going to get downtown to the Sears Building in time after one of those things was dropped. There were a couple of other shelters, but I didn’t know where they were and I figured there wasn’t room for everybody.a
I was too young to understand the difference in the regular bombs that were dropped by airplanes and those nuclear warhead types that were launched from somewhere else. During that 13 day crisis, Charleston had a lot more military planes flying in and out. As soon as I saw one or heard one, I would get down, cover my head with my hands and pray. I know some of you are laughing the thought. What good would covering your head with your hands possibly do? As an adult, I will tell you I see the absurdity of it, but as a kid, it is what were taught to do.
There was a campaign called “Duck and Cover.” There was a cartoon on TV that explained what to do in case of a bomb. The instructions were given by a turtle named Bert. I wonder why they didn’t use a duck instead of a turtle. In case you think I am having delusions from my childhood, here is a link to the video. This was shown and practiced in school. We had to “duck”(get under our desks) and “cover.” This was our Civil Defense’s idea to keep us safe.
Our world has seen a lot of changes since Castro and the Cuban Missile Crisis. For a long time, the idea of nuclear war seemed like something in the past. We are certainly too smart to let something like that happen. The movie “War Games” taught us that no one wins a nuclear war. Yet there has been more talk about nuclear weapons and was than ever before. During the recent political craziness of the elections, President Putin of Russia warned the world about the danger. North Korea has been testing weapons just this year. Many other countries have nuclear capability, even though Russia and the US have most of the weapons. It is really frightening.
Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin in the Wind” asks some pertinent questions of us such as “how many time can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” We get caught up in the hype of the day and forget the bigger pictures. I know now that ducking under a table or desk and covering my head isn’t going to save anyone. I wish I knew what would.