Why do you always assume the Americans are bluffing, and the insane North Korean boyclown isn't? Three aircraft carriers are over kill for this job if necessary.
I don't see them as overkill. I think the more forces we put in position, and the more urgently we do it, the less risk we will have to use them. This is a very serious threat, and it calls for a very serious response. If shooting were to start and North Korea's forces were not quickly and seriously disrupted, they would surely kill many thousands of people in the South before they were through. That includes some of the 28,000 U.S. servicemen there.
We should not underestimate the danger. But we also should not shrink from the risks of large-scale war when we need to face them. The U.S. has been doing that too much in recent years, and it has hurt our credibility. Weakness has allowed North Korea not only to dare to develop, as fast as it can, nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking our allies and even our own territory, but also to express the intent to use them. The U.S. cannot accept that.
The U.S. faced a FAR more formidable opponent than this one in the Cuban Crisis, but it backed down without a fight. And part of the reason for that, I think, is that the U.S. not only moved up an overwhelmingly large force, but had it in place within
a week. I believe Khrushchev never expected a reaction like that, and that when he saw the strength and speed of it, it scared him. All the forces needed for all-out war were ready to go, and he sensed--rightly, I have always thought--that Kennedy was going to use them if necessary.
The information on the site below will give an idea of just how strong the U.S. response was in October, 1962. Remember that these immense forces had almost all been moved into position by the time of President Kennedy's speech on October 22--only about a week after he had first been shown reconnaissance photos proving that several nuclear missile bases were quickly being built in Cuba. Note the hundreds of nuclear-armed bombers. Note also how many ships were in position to enforce the "quarantine" Kennedy announced, including a couple carrier groups, and how many hundreds of tactical aircraft had been packed into airbases in the Southeast. Six divisions, about 100,000 troops, were also quickly moving into position to invade Cuba if that became necessary.
Cuban Missile Crisis Order of Battle
