Product Description

Based on exhaustive research into American documents and exlusive access to secret Soviet archives, the authors of this study have given a full account of the climax of the Cold War - the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #965204 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Berlin Wall has been rubble for a decade and the memories of the Cold War are growing dim. And yet no one is ever likely to forget the Cuban Missile crisis of October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of full-scale nuclear war as Russia and America locked horns off the coast of Florida. The origins of the crisis are as murky as many of the facts. Ever since the time of Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers, the US tended to regard Cuba as its own personal playground and it came as a hell of a shock to the Americans when the corrupt Cuban dictator, Batista, was overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959 and a Marxist regime installed in place. Castro's seizure of power was music to Soviet ears as it gave them a naturally little more than a stone's throw from the American mainland. The US was alert to the threat and in 1961 Pentagon hawks persuaded the newly elected John F. Kennedy to launch his disastrous attempt to oust Castro, the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Later that year, the Soviets persuaded Castro to allow them to build missile bases on Cuban soil. In 1962, the Soviet navy set sail for Cuba, loaded with nuclear warheads, and it was this perceived threat and escalation that precipitated the crisis.

After 10 days of high tension, the Soviet Union backed down. The warheads were sent back home and war was averted, but up till now no one has ever been too certain just how close the world came to catastrophe. Kennedy was assassinated long before he could write his memoirs, Castro's lips are sealed and the Soviet archives were a closed book. Fursenko and Naftali have taken advantage of unrestricted access to Soviet records and have undertaken painstaking detective work to fill in the gaps. Some of the tension of the narrative is lost because we know the outcome, and yet even so they give a penetrating insight as they reconstruct the drama step by step. We learn that the Kremlin did seriously consider launching a nuclear attack on the US. The appropriate orders were discussed and Khrushchev spent the night of October 22 so he could be on hand to cable his authorisation. However, the most interesting facts to emerge are those concerning John Kennedy and his brother Robert. JFK had always previously been portrayed as something of a parochial gung-ho type, but this, it emerges, was a public persona designed to appease the warmongering military rather than the real him. For at the same time as he was talking about a Cuban invasion, he and his brother were engaging in a more secret policy of appeasement through the Soviet ambassador. Fortunately for all of us, diplomacy won the day. JFK has been widely discredited as a leader in recent years for his unpleasant sexual carryings-on and corruption. It may just be though that this view is as incomplete as his portrayal as the whiter-than-white "King of Camelot". If so, One Hell of a Gamble could be the first stage in his partial rehabilitation. --John Crace

Customer Reviews

For me the seminal book on the Cuban Missile Crisis
As someone too young to have any real memories of the Cold War let alone the Cuban Missile Crisis it is easy to think that people exaggerate when they talk of 'the two days during which the world held its breath'. This book explodes any doubts one may have as to just how serious an event this was in world history. Apart from being exceptionally well researched and containing information previously not available, the book is also surprisingly easy to read. I must admit to being an avid fan of Russian and Cold War politics, but even for the novice, the book describes all the personalities involved without any assumption of prior knowledge. This is not to say that the 'expert' will not learn from this account though. Indeed this unique (as far as I am aware) account from the perspective of both the American and Russian scholar means that neither side is portrayed as victors in what was almost an apocalyptic chapter of human history. It also goes a long way to providing an understanding of the often fraught relations that Cuba itself has had with the USSR and USA. To simply regard Cuba as a pawn in the game of chess beiong played by the two Super Powers would be inaccurate something Fursenko and Naftali are keen to point out. This is something that many other books on the subject fail to give adequate attention to . Overall, a book that should be of interest to anyone who wants to realise the potential danger of political posturing in a world with nuclear weapons.

A breakthrough text
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the climax of the Cold War. However for western scholars the writings on this darkest hour of the Cold War have remained very biased - until now. Fursenko and Naftali have written a truly open account of the missile crisis using extensive Soviet sources. The underlying elements of the crisis are exposed revealing a very different nature to the crisis, especially from the Cuban and Soviet side, than previously believed.

Not only is this book a breakthrough study, it is also an enjoyable read, a rarity for many books of this type. The book is therefore accessible to both the experienced historian and the general reader. To both it will provide an informative read.