WHEN KENNEDY BLINKED
31st May 2011
In the 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama served up President Kennedy’s conference with Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961 as support for his thought that it would be a good idea for the president to meet unconditionally with leaders of the Iranian regime. As is so often the case when it comes to history, however, Obama didn’t know what he was talking about. By all accounts — and I mean all accounts — including Kennedy’s own, the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit in Vienna was a disaster. Historians continue to add to the record, but the record has been clear on this point for a very long time.
Here, of course, ‘blinked’ is a code word for ‘had it packed up his pooper’. Khruschev’s ability to roll Kennedy in Vienna directly led to the Cuban missile crisis.