A Shot Heard Round the World

                John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 as the 35^th President of the United States.  This was a tragic loss not only for America but the world.  Kennedy had done extraordinary things with foreign and domestic policy.  He led America through one of the worst times in the nation’s history, the Cold War.  During the Cold War, we were on the brink of a nuclear wear with the Soviet Union and our nation’s leader led us through the war without the massive loss of life that a nuclear war would have entailed.  The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very serious time in our nation’s history and even the leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, commented that the assassination of JFK was “bad news.[1]” 

                Kennedy also did great things on the American home front as he pushed for civil liberties, civil rights, and other controversial issues such as the death penalty.  He was an American hero who was striving to make this country the greatest place possible and the fact the he was struck down before he finished his dream is a sad thing.  The fact that one of his “enemies” said that his death was nothing but bad news shows testament to the fact that he was a great mean who was striving for peace and the strengthening of our nation.

Here is a video of the assassination:

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[1]Oliver Stone, and Peter Kuznick, The Untold History of the United States, (New York: Gallery Books, 2012), 325.

An Unknown Hero

                The Cold War was one of the most hectic eras in human history.  The United States and Soviet Union were on the brink of a war, a war that would not only change history forever, but had the potential to destroy life as we know it.  With both countries capable of launching nuclear weapons at the other, the threat of the destruction of the human race was very real.  The world never came closer to destruction then on October 27, 1962, which Arthur Schlesinger deemed as “not only the most dangerous moment of the Cold War.  It was the most dangerous moment in human history.”

                A navy carrier group was dropping depth charges near a Soviet B-59 submarine which was carrying nuclear weapons.  Many members of the Soviet submarine including, Commander Valentin Savitsky wanted to launch a nuclear attack on the United States after they were not able to reach the general command[1].  With so much confusion and panic the crew members rallied around the commander’s decision, except for Vasili Arkhipov.  Arkhipov refused to launch the nuclear weapon and single-handedly prevented nuclear war and the possible annihilation of the human race. 

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[1] Oliver Stone, and Peter Kuznick, The Untold History of the United States, (New York: Gallery Books, 2012), 309.