🚀 Welcome, future historians! Get ready to time-travel through the Cold War. Buckle up, we’re exploring nuclear strategies, arms treaties, and even a space race! 🌌

• Flexible Response: Kennedy didn’t like having only one option—massive retaliation. So, he opted for a more flexible approach to respond to potential threats.
• Counterforce Strategy: This was Kennedy’s brainchild via his Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. The aim? Destroy enemy military, but spare the cities and innocent civilians.

• Accuracy: Early missiles were like throwing darts blindfolded.
• Proximity: Many military targets were close to cities. Oops!
• Reciprocity: How to ensure the Soviets also play by the 'no cities' rule?

🌍 Real-World Example: Imagine you're playing a high-stakes game of darts. You're trying to hit a specific tiny area (military target), but if you miss, you might hit a big prize (civilians). Your opponent (the USSR) might not play by the same rules!

• Public Skepticism: People feared this strategy made nuclear war more likely, not less.
• Cuban Missile Crisis: The mother of all reality checks. It highlighted how easily things could go south with counterforce strategies.

• Gaddis questioned the rationality of nuclear war. It seemed rational to one side but totally bonkers to the other.