In April 1961, a family sat around a kitchen table in Western Pennsylvania and listened to a special radio broadcast. President John F. Kennedy was addressing the nation about the possible threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

The 32-year-old parents had only limited memory about WWII and also some of the Korean Conflict in the 1950s. The nine children seated around the table ranged from ages 3 to 13. The degree to which anyone in the household understood the threat is very questionable.

What is remembered best is that the parents were afraid and that was rare. Russia and the United states were believed to be the only two nations with nuclear or atomic weapons. We had used two to bring WWII to a close. But that was done far from the borders of this country, and it wasn’t much of a reality to Americans beyond the West Coast. Now the threat was possibly just 90 miles from the Florida coast on a little island called Cuba.

A funny sideline to the story was the discussions in Beaver County as to what would make the county a likely target of an enemy attack. The town of Freedom had what was thought by the natives to be two major attractive targets. The first was the three or four Valvoline Oil tanks along the river which seemed huge but really were insignificant, and the railway switching stations at Conway Yards which employed several hundred was surely to be a most attractive target according to the locals.

Turns out the world doesn’t revolve around Beaver County after all. History says that we really did come close to nuclear war that week though none of us really know what it would have looked like in reality. But at least the 6-year-old from that family remembers it as a real-time threat to end the world.

That threat is far more possible today and the weapons are so powerful now that a strike against New York City or Washington, D.C., would destroy Western Pennsylvania.

We have 13 grandchildren and all but two are over the age of 6. What words would you use to try to explain the threat of nuclear war to them? Would you tell them that one lunatic seated at the Kremlin can decide to start the end of the world because he wants to expend his country’s borders?

Would you tell him that the Democrat in office in 1961 took a strong position and reaction to the threat that caused Russia to tuck their proverbial tail between their legs and go back to where they belonged?

What do we tell kids now? Do we give them a divisive message that shows them the lousy relationship that exists between Americans because we are either Democrats or Republicans first and Americans later? Do we tell them that neither party is willing to support military action if it is proposed by the other party, so our safety is further in question because some are red and some are blue in the political field?

Yes the ’60s were a less complicated time and news wasn’t in our face every moment of the day. And people could believe the national news broadcasts.

Today people are as likely to believe what is released by the Kremlin as by the White House or Congress. If Putin or President Biden (same as if former President Trump was in office) decides to push that button and start an attack, it will just be too late for talk, compromise or even a coin toss.

We had a friend retire rather unexpectedly this year, and he said God took the decision about when to retire out of his hands by the change in his health. We don’t want anyone making the decision on how the world should end to be evil and greedy, or doing it as one final political maneuver.

God Bless America, not just the red or the blue, and keep us safe from the evil of this world today.

— RV