As concerns grow that diplomacy and sanctions—including the recent European oil ban—may not stop Iran’s nuclear program, it is becoming popular to invoke the Cold War, when the policy of containment managed to avoid all-out war with a nuclear Soviet Union. But the analogy fails on several grounds, and simply accepting the previously unacceptable is not a policy option.

First, the fact that we survived the previous nuclear standoff is hardly evidence that deterrence was bound to succeed. On more than one occasion during the West’s struggle with Communism, the threat of mutually assured destruction did not prevent the two sides from stepping right to the brink, most famously during the Cuban Missile Crisis. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203824904577212572805880952.html?mod=WSJEurope_hps_MIDDLE_Video_second