The climax of the Cuban Missile Crisis was summed up in Secretary of State Dean Rusk's quip, "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked." In this case, we didn't get eyeball to eyeball because Joe Biden did a kowtow based on a glare.

Even though the deployment of this missile system was intended to be "temporary," temporary was never defined. Pulling the missile out as China is grousing about it is a bad look as China is doing nothing to "reduce tensions" in the South China Sea because it looks, smells, and tastes like surrender.

Just as Biden's half-hearted efforts to roll back Russian aggression in Ukraine haven't gone unnoticed by our allies and adversaries, neither has Biden's reluctance to confront Chinese adventurism and provocations in the Pacific. Instead of standing firm, Biden has let China dictate to the US what kind of military equipment we can station on the territory of a willing ally. //

polyjunkie
6 hours ago edited
My guess is that the entire Biden foreign policy apparatus is compromised by China. The “Penn/Biden Center” was entirely paid for by China . FJB, Blinken, and the rest of his inner circle were all paid “employees” at the Center, where top secret documents were being kept. Connect the dots: FJB and his staff are paid agents of China, doing its bidding against US interests. Hunter is the Bagman, and the House has the actual wire transfer records showing Chinese money passing to FJB. And the “press” are willing participants/traitors in the coverup.

The only thing screwing this up is FJB’s senility, or China would own us by 2028…. //

Min Headroom llme polyjunkie
4 hours ago edited
The PRC compromise of America and its institutions extends far beyond the Bidens, although it certainly includes them. I used to think the Soviets were pretty good at compromising American assets, but the PRC has long ago said “hold my Tsingtao,” and made the Russians look like lightweight amateurs. They probably have the most massive effort to subvert an opponent in world history. //

Sojourner
5 hours ago edited
Main comment: I agree with Streiff that Biden is getting rolled by the Chinese.

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Secondary comment: I disagree with the second part of the headline where Xi is JFK (i.e., the winner). I think Xi is Khrushchev (because he, not JFK, was the winner). If you're interested why I take this view, read on.

I admit I'm in the minority, but I have an entirely different take of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I maintain Khrishchev got exactly what he wanted: getting the US Jupiter missiles out of Turkey and Italy. Which is exactly what happened as a result of a very secret agreement between Washington and Moscow that actually resolved the crisis.

So, contrary to Rusk's assertion, I think it's the US that blinked.

And it was only a post-crisis Madison Avenue-style PR blitz that relied on "Camelot" (especially in the wake of the Bay of Pigs PR hit to JFK's rep) to make JFK look the hero with the added claim that the Jupiters were going to be retired anyway.

See the Dec 1962 entry here:
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2019-10-30/nuclear-weapons-turkey-1959

Also, see here:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/jupiter-missiles-and-endgame-cuban-missile-crisis-matter-great-secrecy