In March 1966, French President Charles De Gaulle officially informed the US about the decision of France to withdraw from NATO’s military organization.
This was preceded by, according to legend, the following story. The French President visited the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev showed him a launch of an Intercontinental ballistic missile. Shaken by this impressive sight, De Gaulle said, “the same rocket and Paris aims?”. Brezhnev smiled and hurried to comfort the” General: “don’t worry. Not this”.
Of course, it is unlikely it was a single successful joke, but as you know, in every joke (and the legend) is only a joke share. And by the end of this NATO headquarters had to move from Paris to Brussels…
Perhaps, Leonid Ilyich in this case acted in exact accordance with the precepts of the ancient Chinese military thinker sun Tzu, who said, “the rules of warfare best — to keep the enemy state intact, the second place is to destroy this country. The best is to keep the enemy army intact, on the second place — break it…
So a hundred times to fight and win hundred times is not the best of the best; best of the best to conquer foreign army, not fighting.
Therefore the best war is to break plans of the enemy; next is to attack his alliances; the next place — to break his army. The worst is to besiege the fortress.”
If all the war and always managed to win!
Bring De Gaulle to Baikonur
