Status Updates From تاریخ بی‌خردی

although, in follow-up to the previous update, the internet's insisting "march of folly" was first published in 1984, so either my sources (serhii plokhy's "nuclear folly" & ada ferrer's "cuba") are wrong, or i somehow got this book confused with "the proud tower".

EITHER WAY, everyone say thank you barbara tuchman for preventing nuclear war. some other ppl helped, i guess, but mostly: barbara.

my favorite bit of trivia about "the march of folly" and "guns of august" is that both had a significant impact on the presidency of John F. Kennedy, to the point that he sent copies to all his generals during the cuban missile crisis.

so i'm imagining jfk standing in front of his war council, pointing derry girls style, like, "did the soviets plant nuclear missiles in cuba? SWEAR ON BARBARA. SWEAR IT."