Adam Ruins Everything

I'm all about questioning everything and everything, including our show's conclusions, so feel free to ask me anything at all. (Though I be honest when I think an answer would require additional research.) If you haven't seen the show, Let's have some fun!

Proof:

UPDATE: Thanks everyone! That's all the time I have; I have to head to set to shoot more episodes! Thanks for your questions. And hey, if you enjoy hanging out with me online, why not . I'm streaming Dark Souls on an off right now, and having a grand time doing it.

And be sure to watch new episodes of Adam Ruins Everything, every Tuesday at 10pm on TruTV! Or !

I just finished the episode "Adam ruins having a baby" from the show "Adam ruins everything." And it was amazing!!! He really touched on a lot of points and the predatory behavior from the egg freezing industry. At the end, he brings up how people don't need to follow cultural norms and don't need to have babies. He then addresses concerns ppl have about not having a baby. I was so impressed, the episode is on YouTube if anyone is interested. Season 3, episode one.

Hi, I'm Adam Conover. I'm the creator and host of Adam Ruins Everything on truTV. If you haven't seen the show,

UPDATE: Thanks for having me everybody! I may answer a few more assorted question later, but for now I have to run! A few links: If you like the show, please check out , and if you want to watch me play videogames, And finally, Thanks again!

So Adam from Adam Ruins Everything has been doing a series of cartoons "ruining" history.

Very little of what Adam says is actually inaccurate. It simply ignores so much vital context that I struggle to imagine how it could have been unintentional.

Let's start with the missiles in Turkey.

In 1961, JFK gave the order to put fifteen nuclear-tipped Jupiter Missiles on the Turkish Border. Khrushchev was furious!

"You mean to tell me that the US started it?" "Yep..."

There's a lot to unpack here. Fist of all, the reason that the United States had stationed nuclear bombs in Turkey was because the Soviets had stated that they had ICBM's capable of hitting the United states. They did, but they exaggerated just how effective the missiles were. They took hours to launch, but the US didn't know that, so they put the missiles in Turkey as a deterrent. Secondly, there is a big difference between what the US did in Turkey and what the USSR did in Cuba. The US publicly announced that they would put them in Turkey and got the approval of the UN before doing that. The Soviets attempted to sneak medium-ranged missiles into Cuba in order to extort Berlin from the Americans. The reason the Soviets needed to sneak the weapons into Cuba was because they had promised the USA that they would not put any "offensive" weapons in Cuba, which includes ballistic missiles.

In 1960, the US had over 18000 nuclear weapons, while the Soviets only had 1600. That's more than a ten-to-one advantage!

First of all, the United States had no idea was unsure of how many the full capabilities of the nukes the Soviets had. Secondly, even if they did know, many of the US nukes were incapable of hitting the USSR.

The blockade actually escalated the conflict. The US had no legal right to do it, so it was technically an act of war.

I would argue that continually shipping missiles to Cuba was an escalation, and even possibly an act of war. The blockade (or embargo quarantine as they called it to avoid triggering a war) was put in place as a relatively measured response to aggression initially in place due to Cuba seizing land from American companies, but was turned into a de facto blockade. put in place to stop any warheads from reaching Cuba, and acted successfully as a deterrent to Soviet ships (but not Soviet submarines). It is of note that the reason Castro wanted the missiles was so the US couldn't invade like it had in the Bay of Pigs.

Khrushchev: "Tell USA we will take missiles out of Cuba when they take missiles out of Turkey. Khrushchev is reasonable man!"

Kennedy: "We can't do that! If the public finds out I gave into this (totally reasonable) request, they'll think I'm a little softy baby boy."

First of all, the total frantic nature of the Cuban Missile Crisis cannot be underestimated. The US received a letter which said that the USSR would pull the missiles out of Cuba as long as the US promised not to invade Cuba. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a broadcast from the USSR came demanding that the US both promise not to invade Cuba and to pull missiles out of Turkey. EXCOM was so confused by these messages' proximity and differences in tone that they speculated that Khrushchev had been taken out in a silent coup. Secondly, Kennedy was in favor of accepting the Soviet Union's second demand from the start. The reason he had to do it in secret was because Turkey was a NATO-member, and he had to preserve relations because he feared NATO breaking apart if the US didn't protect one of the members.

Finally, and perhaps most egregiously, is Adam's portrayal of JFK.

More than anything, Kennedy was worried about looking weak.

No. Although Kennedy was a politician and almost certainly concerned about his PR, from the beginning of the crisis to its conclusion, Kennedy was concerned about preserving peace without bending to the Soviets and placing his nation in a weak position. Kennedy did not "almost cause World War 3". Kennedy repeatedly sued for peace throughout the crisis and his portrayal in this video as a dim-witted strong man leader is very inaccurate. Khrushchev was similarly reasonable, even if his orders to put missiles in Cuba began the crisis. The real escalator of tensions was none other than Fidel Castro. Not only did Castro order a strike on an American U2 reconnaissance plane, he also actively campaigned for a nuclear first strike on the United States. He was at the center of the conflict and did everything within his power to end the world.

Overall, this is an incredibly misleading portrayal of the Cuban Missile Crisis that I wouldn't even recommend for a kindergartener hearing about it for the first time. I may do more Adam Ruins Everything history videos in the future, because many of them are highly inaccurate or misleading.

Sources:

The Extra Credits series covering the Cuban Missile Crisis. It's a much better summary of the crisis, and I couldn't recommend the channel more. The thing that sets them above John Green and Adam Connover is that they spend multiple long episodes covering one event, giving very detailed summaries.

Special thanks to , , , and for their corrections. This is my first post, and I made a few errors; I'm just glad people caught them.