move the world back from the abyss of destruction. >> jeffrey, it is -- there are, obviously, words. abyss of destruction. but a very different tone, right? putting the onus, the opportunity on the russians as opposed to threatening them with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never before seen. sorry, go ahead. >> erin, two things. two things, quickly. what provoked the cuban missile crisis was the perception of weakness that president kennedy was seen by the soviets the to have demonstrated at the bay of pigs and later at the berlin wall. and they felt they could take him on in cuba and succeed and take him on in berlin and succeed. they could put nuclear missiles in cuba. there's one other thing that we're not mentioning hear. on january 12th of 1950, secretary of state deane atchison gave a speech at the national press club in which he drew the defensive perimeter line for america and the pacific. that line included japan and the