Bay of Pigs II - American missiles in Poland (22082008)

According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, in May 1962 he conceived the idea of placing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba as a means of countering an emerging lead of the United States in developing and deploying strategic missiles. He also presented the scheme as a means of protecting Cuba from another United States-sponsored invasion, such as the failed attempt at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
After obtaining Fidel Castro's approval, the Soviet Union worked quickly and secretly to build missile installations in Cuba. On October 16, President John Kennedy was shown reconnaissance photographs of Soviet missile installations under construction in Cuba. After seven days of guarded and intense debate in the United States administration, during which Soviet diplomats denied that installations for offensive missiles were being built in Cuba, President Kennedy, in a televised address on October 22, announced the discovery of the installations and proclaimed that any nuclear missile attack from Cuba would be regarded as an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded to accordingly. He also imposed a naval quarantine on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of offensive military weapons from arriving there.
During the crisis, the two sides exchanged many letters and other communications, both formal and "back channel." Khrushchev sent letters to Kennedy on October 23 and 24 indicating the deterrent nature of the missiles in Cuba and the peaceful intentions of the Soviet Union.
The history is repeated after forty seven years of the first Bay of the Pigs crisis. Russia recently attacked Georgia, flexing its muscle, giving the Georgian government a bloody nose and sending a loud message to Poland. The United States and Poland signed a deal on Wednesday to station parts of a US missile defence shield on Polish soil, a move certain to aggravate Russia-Western tensions over Moscow's intervention in Georgia. The 10 interceptor rockets in Poland together with a radar complex in the Czech Republic will form the European part of a global system Washington says it is assembling to shoot down ballistic missiles from "rogue" states or militant groups such as al-Qaeda. "This is an agreement that will establish a missile defence site here in Poland that will help us to deal with ... long range missiles ... from countries like Iran or North Korea, "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who signed the agreement with Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski, told reporters. Despite US assurances to the contrary, Russia sees the planned missile shield as a threat to its own security and some Russian politicians and generals have said Poland must be prepared for a preventive attack on the site in the future. Washington has dismissed this threat as empty rhetoric. The Nato said it was unacceptable.
Notwithstanding, the assurances of the US Secretary of State about the reasons for deployment of the missile shield, the truth is very clear, Missiles shield is put there to counter any future threat from Russia to NATO countries and it is in no way different than the Russian attempts in 1961-62 to do the same in Cuba, when the American President took the two super powers to the brink of war.
Russia is right in feeling apprehensive about the American designs. United States of America is the only country in the world to have exploded an atom bomb twice on the civilian population to achieve its military objectives; the important distinction is that the use of atom bombs was not for defensive purposes but merely to assert its nuclear supremacy and establish ascendency over Japan and Germany, who had already lost the World War II. Furthermore, USA has the worse human rights violation record since Hitler, while Russia and China may be blamed for human rights violation of its own people, USA has been involved in genocide in Muslim countries purely to make economic gains.
The world is witnessing a realignment of power, Russia, once a super power is now awakening again and has started by asserting herself as the Regional power, China has done the same, EU though part of NATO alliance is moving in the same direction, while India has similar designs in the subcontinent. Thus, from a one super-power world we are now moving towards a multiple-regional powers and one supper-power world.
Dominance of a single super power proved to be dangerous for the world, as past two decades bear testimony. It remains to be seen how the world fares in the new emerging scenario.