 As World War II had spread around the earth until it became all-out global war, so the Cold War in the late 1950s and early 60s became a danger period of ever-increasing tensions that were worldwide. In West Germany, United States Army troops patrolled the border, the iron curtain that divided the communist world from the free west. Khrushchev threatened that communist East Germany would soon take control of the Allies' supply lines into West Berlin, the same kind of action which once before had threatened death to that free city during the Berlin blockade. Refugees from East Germany fled to West Berlin by the thousands, half a world away in Korea. American soldiers continued to stand guard at the demilitarized zone on the 38th parallel, where an uneasy truce dragged on intermittently. The Cold War had its hot spots. From the mainland, Red China shelled the offshore island of Kamui, held by nationalist China. A revolt against Chinese communist control was crushed by force. Refugees fled to India to escape the Red Terror. In Southeast Asia, communist guerrilla forces set out to conquer the new nations of Laos and South Vietnam. In our own hemisphere, a Cuban revolutionary betrayed his own revolution to become part of the international communist threat to world peace. Thousands of freedom-loving Cubans fled their homeland. Provocation and without warning, Red China attacked neutralist and militarily weak India in an aggressive drive for territory. Late 1950s and early 1960s, making very clear the purpose and designs of a new generation of aggressors. And early 60s, the combat readiness of the United States Army had to be one of great versatility. Along with the rest of our military establishment, the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, the Army served as a potent part of a massive deterring force to prevent the big Cold War from suddenly becoming a big hot nuclear war. The Army had to have the capability of fighting conventional wars, as well as little unconventional wars created by communist-inspired subversion, insurgency and guerrilla activities. So-called nasty little wars of long duration, such as were occurring in the jungles, swamps and rice paddies of Southeast Asia. The Army's responsibilities included not only the immediate defense of the United States, but its readiness to meet our obligations as a member of the United Nations, NATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and other alliances, if called upon to take action along with Allied forces to maintain or restore the peace, to meet overt acts of aggression as we had been called upon to do in Korea. In the 40 or more years since World War I, we had learned a hard lesson that one trouble spot anywhere in the world, like the proverbial rotten apple in a barrel, could infect the rest of the world and us. We had paid with our lives, our blood, our energy and our resources to learn that lesson. The important thing is that we had learned it. It had taken time for the aggressor to learn his lesson too, that a new strong and ready armed force had come into being, not for conquest, but as a potent force to help deter aggression, however uneasy the peace, and to work for the freedom of men who would be free everywhere. The United States Army. Ready military strength. This was something the aggressors understood and respected. You are witnessing the review of an entire United States Army armored division, a part of our ready forces in West Germany, only a small part of an active army of 870,000, 40% of whom were serving overseas. In all, a combat ready fighting force of 16 divisions, with a reserve backup of 29 combat divisions, a formidable arm of defense, a deterring force to discourage any aggressor from rash military adventures. Complimenting these forces in West Germany was a growing inventory of Army missiles designed to give flexibility of firepower to Western Europe's defense. The Hawk. Nike Ajax. The Sergeant. The Nike Hercules. At missile sites throughout Western Europe, a 24-hour operation is maintained, with frequent day and night alerts to ensure operational readiness. The Army's arsenal of missiles emphasizes how far it has come since the last weapon was fired in World War II. Here is one more reason why an aggressor would pause before unleashing conventional war. But a military organization designed solely to fight so-called conventional wars is not geared to fight the kind of unconventional warfare that had broken out in the jungles, swamps and rice paddies of Southeast Asia and could erupt elsewhere at any moment. We are faced with a clear and one-sided threat of a change in the internationally agreed position of Laos. This threat runs counter to the will of the Laotian people, who wish only to be independent and neutral. It is posed rather by the military operations of internal dissident elements directed from outside the country. This is what must end if peace is to be achieved in Southeast Asia. The situation was no better in neighboring Vietnam. Communist-controlled North Vietnam, in violation of its 1954 Geneva Agreement, was using the same guerrilla tactics against South Vietnam. The United States not only increased its flow of weapons and equipment to Southeast Asia, but sent military advisors as well. South Vietnam were men of the Army's special forces, specialists in counterinsurgency and guerrilla warfare, to aid in increasing the combat effectiveness of the pro-West forces in their struggle against the communists. Tensions continued unremittingly throughout the world. Cuba had become a rigidly-policed totalitarian state. Execution was the bloody answer to opposition. To Cuba, now came Russian technicians who arrived to make sure their newest satellite would rapidly become a Soviet-dominated stronghold only 90 miles from the shores of the United States. The Chinese were there, too, to disseminate their own particular variety of communist doctrine. Cuba was now a base for international communism in the Western Hemisphere. So, freedom-loving Cubans who had fled the Castro police state vowed to return and reclaim their homeland from the communist spoilers. Many gave their lives in an heroic but disastrous attempt to do so. More than a thousand of the invasion forces were taken prisoner. They were submitted to long lectures by a triumphant Fidel Castro. In a three-and-a-half-hour May Day speech, Castro gloated over his victory and told the world that Cuba was now a socialist nation and would hold no more elections. The next day, the United States officially proclaimed Cuba to be a communist satellite state. Crisis followed crisis. Khrushchev threatened that Russia would sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany, a Soviet creation which the West refused to recognize. Refugees from East Germany poured into West Berlin, fearing that the few remaining escape exits would soon be blocked. Those would be justified. In West Berlin, our army units were ready and alert to the dangers that a separate Russian treaty with East Germany might bring. World attention again focused on Berlin. Our troops there were training in mock riot control exercises. American soldiers, playing the part of would-be agitators, were confronted by specially trained troops employing riot control techniques. It was also employed in the civil disturbance test. The situation was still tense. Representatives of 14 nations met, seeking a solution to the Laos problem. The conference ended in an east-west deadlock. Tensions were increased, not lessened. Being the critical state of affairs throughout the world, President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 asked Congress for additional funds for worldwide defense commitments. Khrushchev, along with other communist strategists, continued the bellicose threats. Refugees from East Germany increased to more than 2,000 a day. Since 1945, nearly 4 million East Germans had fled from communism to a haven in the West. But on the 13th of August 1961, virtually all escape was suddenly cut off. Here was a new symbol of communist ruthlessness. Overnight, East Berlin became a concentration camp, sealing in the inhabitants of that sector. Barbed wire and cement were the answers to the refugee problem. It was a sudden and forceful intrusion into the lives of people caught on both sides of this grotesque barrier. There were desperate attempts to escape. A few East Germans made it. This was communism's ruthless answer to those who sought freedom. Khrushchev demonstrated our resolution. We strengthened our forces in the Ligert West Berlin. Souls between East and West for a Berlin solution continued. But the stalemate and the tension persisted. United States and Russian arm are gunpoint to gunpoint across the East-West dividing line in Berlin in a dangerous confrontation which needed only a spark to ignite the powder keg of open warfare. Explosive situation, the American soldier gave one of his finest demonstrations of discipline and cool courage. This was his business, and he was conducting it and himself extremely well. He was there to keep the peace, but he was prepared to fight if he must. In crisis reaching a boiling point, the combined armed forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were brought to a high state of readiness. The fighting team of the NATO countries, ground, sea and air, symbolized the collective strength of Western Europe's defense. The Allied stand in Berlin and the might of these NATO forces throughout Europe once again gave the Russians cause for second thought. 1961, Russia's Khrushchev withdrew his end of the year deadline for signing a separate peace treaty with East Germany. But it was only a slight pause in the communist's game of strategic irritation. In Southeast Asia, communist-inspired subversion was unrelenting. South Vietnam looked to others for assistance in stemming North Vietnamese aggression. Military and technical assistance was offered to South Vietnam in a determined effort to thwart this communist's drive for conquest. In South Vietnam, flushing out the communist Viet Cong meant moving fast, locating the area of enemy operation and taking action to deny him any foothold. South Vietnamese soldiers were trained by our military advisors in the latest techniques of helicopter movement. The South Vietnamese were resolved to resist communist aggression. To do less would have meant complete communist takeover. For Little Laos, the future was uncertain, as was the future of big but militarily weak India. Missed China, having overpowered peaceful Tibet, now attacked India along the Tibetan border without warning. Neutral India was rudely awakened. She too was vulnerable to communist aggression. The people of India were quick to respond. Her young man answered the call to the colors. The men assisted in the emergency by helping to finance the country's defense effort. Red Chinese forces ceased fire, but remained belligerently poised on India's doorstep. Still making territorial demands of this peace-loving neighbor was the state of the world in the early 1960s. Threats of big war, little wars raging. The complacent, they were in for a shock. The communist world was demonstrating its collective image of belligerence, power, and solidarity. The world was moving toward a new crisis. The secretary of defense spoke to the nation about the grim details. Russia's men in Havana, Soviet military technicians, had done their work well. Our reconnaissance planes over Cuba had photographed Russian missiles pointed our way from nearly completed bases only 90 miles off the Florida coast. Missiles that would be fully operational within a few days. Time could be running out. October 22, 1962. Good evening, my fellow citizens. This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. I have directed that the following initial steps be taken immediately. To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba, from whatever nation or port, will be found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons be turned back. This quarantine will be extended if needed to other types of cargo and carriers. The Cuban missile crisis tested the combat readiness of our entire defense establishment. The army stood poised, ready to respond. Air Force tracked the progress of the more than 20 Soviet ships heading toward Cuba. If Russia chose to send these ships carrying weapons of offensive war through the quarantine, our response would be automatic. They would be sunk. That was the clear and concise ultimatum given Russia by the President of the United States. The most dangerous crisis in the Cold War years had focused the entire world's attention upon our military strength. The leadership of our army, Air Force and Navy had been given the awesome responsibility of meeting the aggressor's bold move within our own hemisphere. That move was checked by our resolute action and by the fact that we now knew well through past experience that weakness is a certain invitation for the aggressor to attack. This time we were prepared. We know now that the Soviet ships carrying weapons of offensive war turned back and that the Russian missiles were removed by the Soviets when the President of the United States made it clear that if they did not remove the missiles we would take action to do so. The Cuban situation itself was not resolved but an hour of great peril had passed without nuclear holocaust. Again two things had become apparent. The aggressor would go as far as he could to the very brink of war if he was allowed to get away with his aggressive acts. And second, that only the will to fight backed up by a strong ready modern fighting force could deter him from his designs for conquest.