Turning History on Its Head - A New Look at the Cuban Missle Crisis

For nearly forty years most American accounts of the Cuban Missile Crisis of have left Cuba out of the story. With the blockbuster film "Thirteen Days" the story now ignores the Soviet Union as well. The film turns history on its head and drums into our heads exactly the wrong lessons of the crisis.
"Why do you think the Soviets put the missiles in Cuba?" I asked my fourteen year-old daughter after she saw the film. "They were bad," she reasoned on the basis of what the film taught her. "They wanted to hurt the United States." Yes, the United States as victim, an old theme that justifies m…