So we are normalizing relations with Cuba. That might be a task. I remember sitting on the steps of the house in Denver with a baby on our knees calculating WWIII. The "Cuban Missile Crisis." We talked about being so far from family and what we should do in the final hours before the prospective nuclear attack. We wrote letters to friends and family members. We urged them, in the face of expected apocalypse, to give their lives to Christ. I was clueless about some things in those days, and uncertain about others, but I was absolutely sure about the feeling of crisis.
Normalize? If I remember correctly, the pre-Castro Cuba was filled with decadence. Funny! It would probably be pretty mainstream today. Normal compared to what?
Then, there are memories of the Bay of Pigs. President Kennedy was new to the job. He was busy sweeping out all that Eisenhower did and stood for. JFK was bringing in a new generation to do it right. Three events changed the way Kennedy did leadership. The Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs and his meeting with Khrushchev. The Bay of Pigs' fiasco changed his approach to executive management.
Kennedy did not like large meetings. Of course he hadn't done what Eisenhower would have done. JFK liked to talk to a few insiders one on one. The operative word of his presidency was "pragmatism." If it works—but knowing what will "work" if limited to your own opinion and those who agree with you may not be trustworthy.
I can still feel the concrete of that Denver, Colorado stoop and the bleakness of the atmosphere as we talked about government things we knew very little about and our future of which we had no clue. The current president's seemingly arbitrary decision to "normalize" relationship with Cuba brings back a lot of "stuff" to me. As I read these details from The Presidents Club, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, (Simon & Schuster, 2012), several Proverbs were the back beat.
"…the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances" (Proverbs 11:14—Message).
"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed" (Proverbs 15:22 NIV).
Kennedy got counsel after the fact from Hoover, Eisenhower, Truman, historians and many others, including Richard Nixon. It changed his leadership style in helpful ways. The phrase from Proverbs that kept ringing in my mind was "multitude of counselors." Where do we normal types—not high profile decision makers—find a multitude?
"Counsel" is a collection of opinions based on worldview, experience and wise insight. Where do you and I find a crowd of people like that? It is one of the important questions and "advisors" are among our greatest need.
Was Hoover right? Not all counsel becomes a blueprint, but some does.