By asking Gilpatric to make this speech93 [sic], Kennedy may have strengthened his own domestic political standing and reassured American allies, but he also provocatively undermined Khrushchev’s position in the Kremlin and in the world. The Chairman’s entire domestic and foreign strategy was based on creating the illusion of Soviet nuclear might. Now, as the world learned that the emperor had no clothes, Khrushchev must have imagined that the Third World and perhaps even Soviet allies, previously mesmerized by Soviet power, might begin turning away from Moscow.… Khrushchev had fashioned an
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