The Cuban missile crisis shows encircling bases provoke dangerous reactions

Evidence

Remember how the Kennedy administration reacted when the Soviet Union began installing nuclear weapons in Cuba—its only base in the Western hemisphere—at a time when the United States and its allies already had hundreds of bases, many stocked with nuclear weapons, surrounding the Soviet Union. The world then came closer to a nuclear conflict than at any other point during the Cold War. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1061