Add BookmarkOne Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle of those near-fatal days, Dobbs reveals some startling new incidents that illustrate how... (show more)
In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle of those near-fatal days, Dobbs reveals some startling new incidents that illustrate how close we came to Armageddon.
Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev’s plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the accidental overflight of the Soviet Union by an American spy plane; the movement of Soviet nuclear warheads around Cuba during the tensest days of the crisis; the activities of CIA agents inside Cuba; and the crash landing of an American F-106 jet with a live nuclear weapon on board.
Dobbs takes us inside the White House and the Kremlin as Kennedy and Khrushchev—rational, intelligent men separated by an ocean of ideological suspicion—agonize over the possibility of war. He shows how these two leaders recognized the terrifying realities of the nuclear age while Castro—never swayed by conventional political considerations—demonstrated the messianic ambition of a man selected by history for a unique mission. As the story unfolds, Dobbs brings us onto the decks of American ships patrolling Cuba; inside sweltering Soviet submarines and missile units as they ready their warheads; and onto the streets of Miami, where anti-Castro exiles plot the dictator’s overthrow.
Based on exhaustive new research and told in breathtaking prose, here is a riveting account of history’s most dangerous hours, full of lessons for our time.
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I just finished reading it today. From beginning to end, it was like watching a thriller movie while I was actually reading. Or you can put it this way: it was like watching "24" by reading a real case of geopolitical horror. Michael Dobbs's research and writing skills made the book more and more interesting and intense as I progressed through the pages to the point that I was reading at a pace I never knew I can achieve by the time I got to the resolution of the crisis. While t... (show more)
I just finished reading it today. From beginning to end, it was like watching a thriller movie while I was actually reading. Or you can put it this way: it was like watching "24" by reading a real case of geopolitical horror. Michael Dobbs's research and writing skills made the book more and more interesting and intense as I progressed through the pages to the point that I was reading at a pace I never knew I can achieve by the time I got to the resolution of the crisis. While the story of the Cuban missile crisis may seem, for us contemporary readers, an "exciting" episode of world history, the book teaches us valuable lessons on how fragile the ability of maintaining a prolonged peace really was and still is and it especially does a good job in personalizing the story by putting the reader in the shoes of the political and military leaders, which made me totally understood how horrible and nerve-wracking it must have been to live through those 13 nail-biting days back in October 1962. For anyone pursuing studies in history, political science, international relations, or espionage/intelligence studies, this book is definately for you. (show less)
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Dobbs' re-examination of the Cuban missile crisis gets beyond the mythology surrounding Kennedy and Krushchev's 1962 confrontation. He reveals how dangerously wrong leaders in Washington and Moscow sometimes were about one another, and how events were sometimes driven by bit players rather than premiers and presidents. A confused U2 pilot veers dangerously off-course, provoking Soviet air defenses. Another U2 is shot down over Cuba on the orders of a local Soviet commander. CIA-backed sab... (show more)
Dobbs' re-examination of the Cuban missile crisis gets beyond the mythology surrounding Kennedy and Krushchev's 1962 confrontation. He reveals how dangerously wrong leaders in Washington and Moscow sometimes were about one another, and how events were sometimes driven by bit players rather than premiers and presidents. A confused U2 pilot veers dangerously off-course, provoking Soviet air defenses. Another U2 is shot down over Cuba on the orders of a local Soviet commander. CIA-backed saboteurs continue to act on the island. An exhausted, angry Soviet sub captain contemplates launching a nuclear torpedo against American blockade ships. U.S. generals demand an invasion of Cuba. Soviet forces on the island deploy tactical nuclear weapons for just such an eventuality. In an act of what could at best be described as extreme brinkmanship, Cuban leaders advocate a nuclear first strike on the U.S. Messages between the superpower capitals move at a snail's pace--via telegraph, courier, and translator--and are frequently misunderstood. On both sides, nuclear command and control often turns out to be more theoretical than real. You come away with the sense that we're all extremely lucky that 1962's superpower crisis didn't in fact escalate further, faster, and that people on both sides had the sense to back down before events completely escaped their control. (show less)
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