Ripper’s rogue bombers caused the president, Muffley, to speak to the most senior Russian he could reach, Dimitri. This scene echos what happened at the height of the Cold War - the Cuban Missile Crisis. In both Dr. Strangelove and the real world the US and Russia were on the brink of nuclear war. In the real world, there were missiles in Cuba and a quarantine that the US put in place, and in Dr. Strangelove there were planes converging on their targets in Russia. There was also communication between top officials: Dimitri and Muffley and Kruschev and Kennedy. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev sent a rambling letter to Kennedy offering for Russia to remove their missiles from Cuba in exchange for the US removing the quarantine. This letter resolved the crisis when Kennedy agreed to the terms. In Dr. Strangelove, Muffley called Dimitri and explained the situation with the bombers converging on Russia. After a few minutes of back and forth nonsense, Muffley agrees to give the then drunk Dimitry a “complete run down on the targets, the flight plans, and the defensive systems of the planes.” Even though Kubrick parodied the Cuban Missile Crisis in this scene, it reflected reality; the challenge in communication between bitter enemies.