Thomas Jefferson's Response to the Cuban Missile Crisis In the year 1801 Thomas Jefferson reluctantly sent the infant navy to the shores of Tripoli in hopes of avoiding an attack on America by the Pasha of Tripoli. Many years later, October of 1962, America once again teetered on the brink of war, but this time with John F. Kennedy by their side, and the threat was nuclear war. Two situations very different, but also similar; two outstanding presidents who did what they thought was right in the time of crisis. Perhaps had Thomas Jefferson been in charge in the year 1962 the