and at that time, it was necessary, unfortunately. We suspected some Soviet war planning, from our former allies, that we had "mysteriously met on three fronts through other conflicts. We decided a prememptive and clandestine strike on a location that had not disclosed to NATO or the UN.
That preemptive strike was the first time PUBLICLY the US was criticized by the United Nations. But...
That's how we kept the Soviets from nuking us, and the reason we set up the "mutually assured destruction" policy. The policy was worthy of its acronym M.A.D.
At first, we thought our continent was safe, and then the Soviets launched Sputnik. That revealed ULTIMATELY the true goal of man trying to put a man on the moon. If man can hit the moon, he can hit anywhere on earth. We never had to be told it. When the Soviets achieved shooting a missile into space, we knew ultimately, the race for weapons supremacy was on.
This was official kick off of the Cold War which was based on that secret stockpile of nuclear weapons, and we found out Sputnik was just a test of the delivery system, and a exploration for Uranium, which was believed to be rare, and possibly from outer space.
THE SOVIETS HAD ALL OF SPACE AND TIME AIMED AT US. and we would have never known...
if nothing, that speaks toward the value of preemptive strike.
and it was what was on the minds of many people much older than us, when we were attacked. That paranoia of the Cold War was well defrosted by time most of us were born. We simply can not relate, because by the time of Jimmy Carter's tolerance of terrorism and anti-americanism, international violence was almost considered a legitimate diplomatic policy by countries or focus groups that lacked nuclear capacity to negotiate their vantage points. It was Reagan, before his mind went feeble with Alzheimer's, who reminded us the most deadly game humanity ever played was still going on, and the rules were getting dangerously forgotten.
...but yeah, the way I worded it, that was funny, huh?