POLI 2P91 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Cuban Missile Crisis, Siege Of Melos, Sicilian Expedition
31 Oct 2015
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Put yourself in enemies skin and look at yourself in their eyes. The leaders were all rational people during this time but we were still so close to nuclear war. Pericles: lets fight when the odds are in our favour. At the time of this crisis usa had a 10:1 advantage to soviets in ownership of nuclear weapons. The purpose of customs and laws are there to protect the weak (melian) Melians are relying on false hope (spartan aid) Athenians will fall to false hope, just the thing they are criticizing in the dialogue. Juxtaposed with melos the delusions of hope (this is directly against pericles" strategy) Will win if you don"t take on large new conquers (pericles" strategy) Greatest military effort over 50,000 athenians sail far across the sea to conquer. Athens suffers total defeat, through amazingly fights on for 9 years after. This is the turning point that kills athens.
