Khrushchev, "determined to intimidate an adversary whose nerve he doubted, upped the stakes." He gave the East Germans the go-ahead to build the Berlin Wall, then -- after Kennedy did nothing -- he upped the ante again by introducing strategic nuclear missiles 90 miles from our shores, believing Kennedy would back down -- something he never would have dared to do with Dwight Eisenhower, who built the nuclear arsenal that kept the Soviets at bay. Ike didn't need testing.
In the end, of course, Kennedy didn't back down, but he brought the United States to the brink of nuclear war -- all because he was seen as someone who could be pushed around and who didn't lay down clear foreign-policy markers until the missiles had been installed.
Kennedy, wrote historian Michael Beschloss, "had not warned against them until it was too late."
This is the kind of crisis scenario that Biden seemed to be referring to when he told the Democratic fundraiser that Barack Obama would be tested just as Kennedy was tested. It was a chilling comparison fraught with high-risk implications for an Obama presidency.
National-security and foreign-policy issues have taken a back seat in this election as the economy's crisis unfolds, and that has worked in Obama's favor and against John McCain.
But we've seen disturbing examples of Obama's abysmal judgment on foreign-policy issues both before and throughout this campaign.
He condemned the U.S. military surge in Iraq, predicted it would fail and would even make the situation "worse." It succeeded and led to the start of U.S. military withdrawals from Iraq.
When Russia invaded neighboring Georgia, sending warplanes and tanks deep into its sovereign territory, he called on Putin and his gang of Cold War warriors to show "restraint."
When he was challenged in debate with Hillary Clinton about how we should respond to dangerous rogue countries like Iran and North Korea, he said he would talk face to face with their leaders without preconditions. Clinton condemned his position as irresponsible and naive.
We are about to elect a president who will be the most inexperienced chief executive in modern history. Never mind what McCain says about this, listen to Biden who says ominously that Obama will be tested in the first six months in office with a serious international crisis that may endanger our national security, just as Kennedy was. Think about that before you vote.