The author is talking about how the us had to waste countless lives in wars against the communist and it seems he/she is trying to convince the reader about how absurd this situation is and how we should stop sending our soldiers to fight these dumb wars that have started for reasons unexplained.
(sorry if this doesn't help i tried to point out a main idea)
The us suffered from a brutal loss of soilders.
Florida was returned to Spain after the American Revolution.
The "father of medicine" is Hippocrates
It was the Cuban Missile Crisis, a faster more efficient communication method was needed for the government.
