For me, the opposite of peace is not war, but fear. Peace is the second theme for Advent, the four weeks of preparation for Christmas. This week I will talk about how I experienced the threat of war as a child, even though I live in the peaceful post-war era.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13 day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. American deployment of nuclear missiles in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The crisis lasted Oct.16-28 in 1962. It was the closest the world came to full scale nuclear war. Canada was geographically at the centre of the fallout of that crisis.
In October 1962 I was 13 years old and in Grade 8. Of all the countries in the world, Canada was the most vulnerable place on Earth to be in a nuclear war between the superpowers. The world held its breath on the deadline day of that standoff between the US and USSR.
The adults didn’t want to scare the children, but we were aware of the threat we faced. I remember clearly hugging my classmates as we left school to walk home for lunch. We were rightfully afraid that we would never see each other again. I remember thinking maybe I could hide under the kitchen table if nuclear war broke out that day. Ordinary Canadians did not have a fallout shelter, such as that built for government officials in Ottawa.
The trauma of that fearful day lingers with me. Thankfully, I never had to cope with the fatal effects of radioactive fallout, but the psychological fallout remains.
Although my children and grandchildren have not experienced the trauma of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there are many other world events that have overshadowed the peace of their lives.
In October 1962, an American U2 spy plane photographed medium and long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba. US president John F. Kennedy, after conferring with national leaders and his advisors, ordered a naval blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba. He referred to the blockade as a “quarantine” not as a blockade, so the US could avoid the formal implications of a state of war. An agreement was eventually reached between Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev that the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba in exchange for a US agreement not to invade Cuba again. The United States secretly agreed to dismantle all of their offensive weapons in Turkey.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Canadian armed forces were placed on heightened alert. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was widely criticized for his hesitant response to the crisis.
The standoff between the US and the Soviet Union was resolved with the help of United Nations diplomats, in particular Secretary -General U Thant who offered suggestions to resolve the crisis. Thant continuously relayed messages between the two superpowers. As Kennedy acknowledged later, “U Thant has put the world deeply in his debt.”
(source, Canadian Encyclopedia)
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus who is called the Prince of Peace. The first to hear about this special birth were shepherds. Angels greeted the shepherds with a message of peace: “Fear not.”
During Advent, let us calm our fears with God’s assurance of peace.
