President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, as Russian officials speak of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in the eight-month invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons."
Biden added, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Biden also challenged Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that the use of a lower-yield tactical weapon could quickly spiral out of control into global destruction.
“I don't there is any such a thing as the ability to easily use a tactical weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden added.
Armageddon: What does it mean?
Going by The New Testament in the Bible, the term 'Armageddon' refers to the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgement. It is often considered the most catastrophic conflict with the potential to destroy the world.
US officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine as it has faced a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield as recently as this week. Though, they have seen no change to Russia's nuclear forces that would require a change in the alert posture of US nuclear forces.
1962 Cuba Missile Crisis
In the fall of 1962, the whole world witnessed one of the deadliest standoffs between the United States of America and the Soviet Union when both the axial superpowers came closest to waging nuclear warfare.
The whole conflict stemmed from the US's futile attempt to dismantle the Castro regime in Cuba by deploying the 'Bay of Pigs' invasion. When President John F Kennedy envisaged 'Operation Mongoose' or 'The Cuban Project', a meticulous plan to eradicate terrorist attacks on civilians, Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev inked a secret agreement with his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro. The agreement included the planting of secret soviet missiles in Cuba to avert any future attempt at invasion.
US later, during routine surveillance, discovered the existence of the military build-up in Cuba and several pictures of sites for medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) in Cuba surfaced. The pictures were later processed and presented to the White House, which officially marked the onset of the chapter of 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.
