371 | Evan Thomas: The Atomic Bomb's Legacy in a Disordered World
The Realignment
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The Berlin Crisis in 1961
In 1961, President Kennedy was trying to figure out this very question. When if the tanks start shooting at each other, when do I go nuclear? And so he brings in a Mac Bundy, his national security advisor, George Bush,. Dean Acheson, the great Cold War Secretary of State is retired, but active and he brings him into the Oval Office. To answer your question about Berlin, the Berlin crisis comes up in 1959, before 1961, when Khrushchev says, I give you six months and then we're taking Berlin. It's an ultimatum. Eisenhower never told his closest people whether he would use nuclear weapons or not. Why? Because he didn't want to
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