I've no meaningful memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was five years old. What I learned years later: the use of nuclear weapons was on the table as a live option. We avoided Armageddon because President John F. Kennedy, not perfect by any means but overall a man of lucidity and sanity, was able to negotiate with Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet leader, also not perfect by a long shot but also lucid and sane, agreed to remove Soviet missiles from our backyard: Cuba.

Those watching also saw the difference between lucidity/sanity and psychopathy. Reportedly, Fidel Castro was livid. He told Khrushchev he would have preferred Armageddon to being excluded from the negotiations. Maybe there was a reason both Kennedy and Khrushchev excluded him? Do you think?

Only a psychopath would choose nuclear Armageddon over negotiation and pragmatic de-escalation, even if the latter leads to disempowerment and multipolarity.

According to numerous observers, we're now closer to a nuclear World War III than at any time since 1962. The octogenarian in the White House, moreover, is no John F. Kennedy, despite scripted stunts such as his appearing in Kyiv, Ukraine the other day to the sound of air raid sirens although there were no air raids going on.