Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
An important point about the Cold War, and why some old schoolers hanker for those days. The rules of engagement were mostly known to both sides, and where they were blurred, there was still a firm channel of communication between the two sides. Did we completely know what the Russians were thinking? Probably not, but we completely knew how to talk to them to reach some kind of settlement.
Did we now?

I'll say the Cuban missile crisis showed very clearly that we had absolutely no clue of what they were up to, and neither did they.