Regarding your editorial “The Biden-Xi Truce of the Moment” (Nov. 16): Historians have long argued that one of the precipitating factors behind the Cuban Missile Crisis was Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s assessment of President John F. Kennedy at the Vienna summit in June 1961. Khrushchev considered Kennedy a lightweight, a glamour boy who had attained his presidency with his father’s money and who was in way over his head. This assessment emboldened Khrushchev to ship intermediate range missiles to Cuba, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Fortunately, Kennedy proved to be made of stronger stuff than Khrushchev had supposed.

It’s not hard to imagine that Chinese President Xi Jinping came away from his meeting with President Biden thinking that, given Mr. Biden’s age and increasingly obvious infirmity, Mr. Biden is also a lightweight who is in way over his head.