Forty six years ago, in 1962, the world was brought to the brink of another world war. The Cuban Missile Crisis played out on televison sets around the world as millions waited to see if the Soviet Union could be forced to withdraw missiles, that they said were not there, from Cuban soil.

No one who lived through that time will ever forget the confrontation at the United Nations when American Ambassador Adlai Stevenson showed the recognizance photos to the United Nations Security Council and called out, and completely embarrassed Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin.

Since then, we have seen the breakup of the Soviet Union and the supposed end to Communist governments in most countries. One of the exceptions is Cuba, where the Castro dictatorship continues under the leadership of Raul Castro. And in Russia, the current leader Vladimir Putin is not considered a friend of the United States. As a matter of fact, the United States and Russia are at odds because the United States has plans to build a missile defense system and that has led to experts believing that Russia wants to use Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear submarines. And Putin has just announced that he wants to, in his words, rebuild relations with Cuba.

He is insisting that there will be no military goods involved, that they are looking to open trade negotiations relating too energy, the mining industry, agriculture, transport, health care and communications, but back in 1962 we were assured that there were no offensive weapons in Cuba and not only were they there, some of them were armed and ready.

Why would this be a good time for Russia to try and rebuild ties with Cuba? The United States is in the middle of a Presidential election, a time that they perceive to be best because there will be a change of administrations, a change of policy and they want to be in a strong position come next January 20th.

There has been a call for the United States to resume relations with Cuba, just 90 miles off the coat of Florida, but it has had a lot of opposition. With this latest development, it is becoming obvious that the next administration is going to have to come face to face with the Cuban situation.

Can the same thing happen now that happened in 1962? Not immediately. The Russians are not likely to send in military equipment right off the bat, but history has been known to repeat itself and it is when we do not pay attention to the lessons of the past that we make mistakes that affect our future.

The next administration is going to have to pay more attention to Cuba. The United States and the rest of the world as well, cannot take the chance, even the remotest chance, that offensive missiles will be that close to our shores again.

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