Re: Since about 1950
The point was to illustrate that the United States has faced a terrible threat before, without resorting to a pre-emptive strike, but not to suggest that our foreign relations with Iraq should be modeled after the US-USSR experience.
In any event, this would be an impossibility because it's a completely different situation which requires a completely different approach. Iraq's military potential is miniscule compared to that of the former USSR.
Which should unerringly lead one to the obvious conclusion that If we didn't need to resort to pre-emption in the case of the Soviet Union, then we certainly do not need to in the case of Iraq.
sp