Russia and the USA are on the brink of nuclear war. Andrey Il'ych Narmonov, President of Russia, stops to think...
* * * * *
'How do wars begin?' Narmonov asked himself quietly in the corner. In history, wars of conquest 
were started by strong men who wished to grow stronger still. But the time for men of imperial ambition had passed. The last such criminal had died not so long before. All that had changed in the twentieth century. The First World War had been started - how? A tubercular assassin had killed a buffoon so unloved that his own family had ignored the funeral. An overbearing diplomatic note had prompted Czar Nikolay II to leap to the defense of people he hadn't loved, and then the timetables had begun. Nikolay had the last chance, Narmonov remembered. The last of the Czars had held in his hand the chance to stop it all, but hadn't. If only he'd known what his decision for war would mean he might have found the strength to stop it, but in his fear and weakness he'd signed the mobilization order that had ended one age and begun another. That was had begun because small, frightened men feared war less than showing weakness.
were started by strong men who wished to grow stronger still. But the time for men of imperial ambition had passed. The last such criminal had died not so long before. All that had changed in the twentieth century. The First World War had been started - how? A tubercular assassin had killed a buffoon so unloved that his own family had ignored the funeral. An overbearing diplomatic note had prompted Czar Nikolay II to leap to the defense of people he hadn't loved, and then the timetables had begun. Nikolay had the last chance, Narmonov remembered. The last of the Czars had held in his hand the chance to stop it all, but hadn't. If only he'd known what his decision for war would mean he might have found the strength to stop it, but in his fear and weakness he'd signed the mobilization order that had ended one age and begun another. That was had begun because small, frightened men feared war less than showing weakness. * * * * *
Tom Clancy, The Sum Of All Fears, page 931
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