[run4yourlives2]

There's a pretty big difference in China sending a couple of warships to the gulf and USSR setting up a nuclear missile base with missiles pointed at the US on Cuba.

[cygwin98]

Nuclear missles or "90000 tons of diplomacy" are both certain kinds of deterrence, nothing more, nothing less. If US does not have those carrier combat groups, China wouldn't care either.

[run4yourlives2]

Instant destruction that you can't defend against is not the same as an annoying ship floating around off your coast.

The proper comparison to cuba is Star Wars type missile shields. And USSR/Russia has long been quite opposed to that, for good reason.