En udenforstående kunne tro, amerikanerne var gået fra forstanden i sommeren og efteråret 1961, da landet debatterede opførslen af beskyttelsesrum i deres hjem og det etiske i at slå naboer og venner ihjel for at beskytte dem.
Kennedy had inherited by now the full route of Dulles' brinksmanship. To an outside observer, it might have seem that Americans had taken leave of their senses in the summer and fall of '61 as the nation conducted an extended conversation on buidling fallout shelters in their homes, as well as the ethics of killing neighbors