| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
THE 1962 CUBAN CRISIS is most frequently cited as one of the most dangerous confrontations in world history. Even a greater threat for mankind was perhaps the Korean War of 1950-1953 that brought in its wake crushing losses for the people and economics of both North Korea and South Korea in terms of millions of human lives and destruction. The current tensions on the Korean peninsula have to do with the development of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang and, in a sense, with that war. Nuclear weapons proliferate where the threat to use them is very high. The USSR and the USA, which supported the warring sides, were causing an escalation of the conflict trying to outdo each other by supplying unheard of amounts of weaponry for that local war as they themselves were gradually and increasingly being drawn into combat operations. This is the only war in the USSR's history where its armed forces were fighting against the U.S. armed forces. The war came close to becoming global and to an exchange of nuclear strikes. This is why now, after 60 years on, the experience of the Korean War should serve as a stark reminder to those who are not averse to flex muscles.
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