Note that while "missile" and "rocket" are basically the same thing, the modern term is "missile", the earlier and heavily loaded term being "rocket". "Fusée" may have been chosen here as appropriate for McCain, ageing him (as if he needed it) and putting an international-political slant on him (as if he needed it).

TTBOMK "missile" only came into use with intercontinental ballistic missiles. Throughout the early days of rocketry and the earlier days of the Cold War, "rocket" was all the range. Not sure what is meant by "long-range rocket" and where that would fit in between "short-range rocket" and "intercontinental missile", but since the French says "fusée" where it could equally well if not better said "missile" had it wanted to, I'd stick to "rocket". Mesclun and mâche too.

During the Cold War, these two countries each acquired nuclear weapons arsenals numbering in the thousands, placing many of them onto ROCKETS which could hit targets anywhere in the world. ... The emergence of nuclear-tipped ROCKETS reflected a change in both nuclear technology and strategy ... Smaller bombs meant that bombers could carry more of them, and thus become even more of a threat against even the most rigorous air defenses, and they could also be used in conjunction with the development in ROCKETRY during the 1950s and 1960s. U.S. rocket efforts had received a large boost in the postwar years, largely from the acquiring of engineers who had worked on the Nazi ROCKETRY program during the war, such as Wernher von Braun, who had been involved in the design and manufacture of the V-2 ROCKETS which were launched across the English Channel ... The first nuclear-tipped ROCKETS, such as the MGR-1 Honest John, first deployed by the U.S. in 1953 , were SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES WITH RELATIVELY SHORT RANGES (around 15 mi/25 km maximum) with yields around twice the size of the first fission weapons. The limited range of these weapons meant that they could only be used in certain types of potential military situations—the U.S. rocket weapons could not, for example, threaten the city of Moscow with the threat of an immediate strike ... With the development of more rapid-response technologies (such as ROCKETS and long-range bombers), this policy began to shift ... With long-range bombers, the time from the start of an attack to its conclusion was reduced to mere hours. With ROCKETS, it could be reduced to minutes. It was reasoned that conventional command and control systems could not be expected to adequately respond to a nuclear attack, and so great lengths were taken to develop the first computers which could look for enemy attacks and direct rapid responses ... Bombers and SHORT-RANGE ROCKETS were not reliable: planes could be shot down, and earlier NUCLEAR MISSILES could cover only a limited range— for example, the first Soviet ROCKETS' range limited them to targets in Europe. However, by the 1960s, both the United States and the Soviet Union had developed INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILES, which could be launched from extremely remote areas far away from their target; and SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED BALLISTIC MISSILES, which had less range but could be launched from submarines very close to the target without any radar warning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons


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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-09-29 20:04:45 GMT)
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Read " "rocket" was all the rage" (not "range").

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Note added at 4 hrs (2008-09-29 22:38:51 GMT)
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http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ro-Sp/Rockets-and-Missiles.h...

In military use, ROCKETS generally use solid propellant and are UNGUIDED. ROCKETS equipped with warheads can be fired by ground-attack aircraft at fixed targets such as buildings, or can be launched by ground forces at other ground targets. During the Vietnam era, there were also air-launched unguided rockets that carried a nuclear payload designed to attack aircraft formations in flight. IN MILITARY TERMINOLOGY, the word MISSILE is often PREFERRED OVER ROCKET WHEN THE WEAPON USES EITHER SOLID OR LIQUID PROPELLANT, AND HAS A GUIDANCE SYSTEM.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Rocket

Launch vehicles are virtually the same as ROCKETS and MISSILES. The term "MISSILE" is usually used when the vehicle does not actually enter orbit and when the payload-what the launch vehicle is carrying and propelling into space-is some sort of weapon
http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/aviation/space.htm

But the simple fact is: the French says "fusée", not "missile".

This political and military atmosphere, coupled with the fear that the Americans might invade Cuba, led Khrushchev to agree to supply surface-to-air MISSILES and surface-to-surface cruise missiles (for coastal defense) to Cuba in April 1962. He followed this with a decision, in May 1962, to install nuclear MISSILES (under Soviet control) in Cuba. By late July, more than sixty Soviet ships had arrived in Cuba, some carrying military material.
Operation Anadyr was the code name used by the Soviet Union for their strictly secret operation of deploying BALLISTIC MISSILES, medium-range bombers, and a regiment of mechanized infantry in Cuba to create the Soviet force intended to prevent the invasion of the U.S. military forces.[12] Anadyr included a military deception campaign intended to mislead Western intelligence forces: personnel were issued Arctic equipment and trained for cold weather, and the operation itself was named for the Anadyr river in the northern part of the Russian Far East. The ballistic missiles were shipped to Cuba on merchant ships.
In all were planned to deploy 60,000 troops, three R-12 MISSILE regiments and two R-14 missile regiments. Troops were transferred by 86 ships, that conducted 180 voyages from ports Baltiysk, Liepāja, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Nikolaev, Poti, Murmansk. Between June 17 and October 22 there were transferred 24 launching pads, 42 R-12 ROCKETS, including six training ones, some 45 nuclear warheads, 42 Il-28 bombers, a fighter aircraft regiment (40 Mig-21 aircraft), two Anti-Air Defense divisions, three mechanized infantry regiments, and other military units - some 47,000 troops in total
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

22 octobre 1962
Dévoilement par le président américain de la présence de MISSILES soviétiques à Cuba
http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMEve?codeEv...

17 avril 1961
L'année suivante, les tensions entre les deux pays atteindront un nouveau sommet avec la découverte de la présence à Cuba de FUSEES soviétiques.
http://perspective.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/servlet/BMEve?codeEv...

Admittedly the two terms are mixed here:
La crise de Cuba (aussi appelée CRISE DES MISSILES – OU FUSEES – nucléaires de Cuba, affaire des missiles/fusées de Cuba, ou simplement crise/affaire des missiles/fusées) est une série d'événements survenue du 16 octobre au 28 octobre 1962
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crise_des_missiles_de_Cuba

Les sites de FUSEES russes à Cuba
http://lettres-histoire.ac-rouen.fr/histgeo/crise_cuba_1962....

JOHN F. KENNEDY
His First and Best Remembered Speeches
Capitol Records T-90001
SIDE ONE:
1. THE SWEARING IN
2. ......
SIDE TWO:
1. KENNEDY ON FREEDOM OF COMPETITION
2. *********THE CUBAN ROCKET CRISIS*******
http://cgi.ebay.com/JOHN-F.-KENNEDY-His-First-&-Best-Remembe...

I just wish we could hear it to find out if HE does say "rocket". I suspect he does. We all know how history is rewritten, with words of the day, apart from anything else ...

But more than the love of language, music was Hitch's passion. In Cuba, despite the ROCKET CRISIS (with the resolution of which he was much concerned), some of his chamber music sessions went on until 2am
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/brian-hitch-550...

More on that record, with album cover : http://www.musicstack.com/item/18999496/kennedy,john/the ina...

Who knows, maybe McCain DOES say "rocket", figuring it will make him sound like JFK!


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Note added at 5 hrs (2008-09-29 22:48:30 GMT)
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Within four months of Sputnik, Bill was ready to launch. He had worked for the Army on medium range rockets (200 or so kilometres). The Navy had been responsible for LONG RANGE ROCKETS so, in front of a large media contingent, the Navy launched first. Their vanguard rocket blew up on the launch-pad, to considerable national embarrassment.
http://www.rutherford.org.nz/biopickering.htm

And even today we have "long-range rockets":

19.04.07. AP / Truthout. ‘Speaking ahead of talks with Russia and NATO allies, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said the strategic defense shield was needed to deter Iran and others in the Middle East from developing LONG RANGE ROCKETS that could threaten Europe or North America.’
http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/06/us-nato-missile-sh...