OPINION:
Robert McNamara, secretary of defense during the Kennedy presidency, said in the 2003 documentary “The Fog of War” that during his tenure, the U.S. came within a “hair’s breadth” of nuclear annihilation on three separate occasions. McNamara said it was mostly just luck it didn’t happen, and that these near-apocalyptic events occurred even though “perfectly rational” men were in power and making the decisions.
President Biden said at a fundraiser last week that “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis” (“Biden warns risk of nuclear ‘Armageddon’ approaching Cuban Missile Crisis heights,” Web, Oct. 6). The war in Ukraine needs to end with a negotiated settlement now. If we need to provide Vladimir Putin with a face-saving “offramp,” so be it. The continued escalation of that conflict is making the possibility of the direst consequences more real than should ever be allowed.
No other issue requires our attention more than this one. A nuclear hurricane is developing in western Russia, and we need to heed the warning because evacuation isn’t possible.
SCOTT THOMPSON
Bloomington, Indiana
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