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Title: One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
ISBN: 1400043581
Author:
Michael Dobbs
Publicate Date: 2008-06-03
Publish: 2008-06-03
List Price: $28.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $17.19
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $14.45
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.11
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Outstanding History Written as a Thriiler
I also remember the Cuban missile crisis. I was in college and remember the Sunday night speech and watching the Russian ships heading for the blockade line. I also was of age to idolize President Kennedy and be inspired by him.
I reading Mr. Dobbs work all the memories came back. This book really covered the back stories. The CIA almost silly attempts to overthrow Castro, the mistaken U2 overflights of Russia and the lack of the ability to communicate. Also I learned for the first time the number of troops the Russians had in Cuba. Lastly, I was so impressed with how human error got us closer to war.
The most important part of the book was the understanding how both leaders realized that war was the last option and not the first. When looking at the abyss they each understood they needed to find a way around it. Mostly, I was impressed with the wisdom and sense of history of JFK.
I could not help reflect upon our current leadership. Before going to war did they really understand the costs and the dangers. As we come closer to the return of the Cold War, reading this makes me understand the importance of judgement in our leaders. This book really explains not who will answer the phone at 3AM but what will they do when it rings.
With all the historic lessons Mr. Dobbs wrote a book in a thriller format. There were sections I was at the edge of my seat even though I knew the answer. This proves great history does not have to be dull
This book should be required reading for every college student in the US. Thank you Mr. Dobbs for such a valuable lesson written in such an entertaining way.
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2: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON A DEFINING MOMENT IN HISTORY
THIS IS A TRULY EXTRAORDINARY COMMENTARY ON A DEFINING MOMENT IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY....WELL WORTH A READ....A RECOMMENDATION FROM SOMEONE WHO WAS ACTUALLY THERE.
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3: Read it and be scared all over again
I was in college during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Between classes we sat in the Student Union Building watching CBS News on TV, waiting for a break in the tension - or the flash of a nuclear bomb. At one point the lights went out and one of my friends yelled and dove under a sofa for cover. (Someone had bumped the light switch.) The missile crisis was a defining moment in the Cold War. After the lessons of the crisis, the US and Russia (and China) managed to avoid getting nearly that close to nuclear war, despite Vietnam and the collapse of the USSR.
"One Minute to Midnight" brings it all back and adds new information that is very frightening, even with 46 years' distance. The book is well written and seems to have been very thoroughly researched. Dobbs resists the temptation to pad his story to make a longer book or to dramatize the situation to heighten the tension. The story is dramatic and tense enough as it is. His straightforward and coherent writing makes it clear how amazing it was that we didn't all get vaporized at the end of October 1962.
The scariest thing to read is that Fidel Castro was urging the Russians to launch a nuclear attack on the US and that he explicitly preferred dignity and his dogmatic "end of days" vision of a victory for socialism over a retreat. I used to think that the possession of nuclear weapons was likely to make leaders much more cautious about going to war. So much for that idea! Castro's advice to the Russians shows that having nuclear weapons won't make a crackpot ruler sane. So by extension, the prospect of Iran having the bomb in the future - or even Pakistan, which does have it - is a lot more frightening after you read Dobbs' book than it might have been before.
The book makes the case that John Kennedy's experience in World War II helped him resist the demands of his generals - most notably Curtis Lemay - to start shooting. The Pentagon thought there were 6,000 to 8,000 Russian advisors in Cuba, but there were 40,000. And they were armed with tactical nuclear weapons. Imagine what a disaster we would have had if we'd dropped a couple of divisions onto the beaches east of Havana. Anyone who's been in the military soon learns to question intelligence and to be skeptical of reflexive assumptions about the enemy. John Kennedy had already been burned by bad intelligence during the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so he was doubly skeptical. Dobbs shows us how lucky we were that JFK was neither na??ve nor trigger happy.
All of this and far more unfolds brilliantly in One Minute to Midnight. The story is intrinsically intriguing and riveting. The book is well structured and well written, and Dobbs has given us enough new information to make shake our heads in wonder and dismay.
A few years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert Kennedy wrote "Thirteen Days" to describe the meetings of the US civilian and military leaders. While it had Bobby's own spin, the sweaty palms we all had in October 1962 have made me keep Kennedy's book on a special shelf. It's one of the books that have shaped my understanding of the world. Michael Dobbs' "Now One Minute to Midnight" is going to join it.
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4: One Minute to Midnight...
Extensive research and documentation of that research. Interesting insights to the personal actions of actors in this realp-life drama. One of those books that is hard to put down. For me a rare experience: I wrote the author my compliments and specific response. I recommend this book.
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5: Doomsday Averted
This was a very good, day by day, in some cases minute by minute description of the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Certainly the topic has been done before, but Dobbs is a very thorough reporter and brings forth a lot of material I did not know about until now.
And this is an event I lived through. Dobbs makes the point that the "eyeball to eyeball" event of Russian ships turning around when they saw the American blockade was an exageration, that the ships were hundreds of miles apart. However, the book as a whole makes it seem like the world's two super powers were closer to going to war than I realized. When Kruschchev announced he would pull out the missiles on a Sunday, Kennedy had already authorized an air strike on the following Tuesday. We really were on the brink of a nuclear war.
Kennedy and Khruschev each come off as relatively level head political leaders dealing with a military leaders and systems poised to launch a nuclear war. Castro, not so much.
Dobbs does a masterful job of juggling events on a world wide canvas. The book moves seamlessly from scenes in Washington, Moscow, Havana, the missiles sites in Cuba, on board Soviet submarines, American U2 flights, including when an Alaskan based plane inadvertently goes over Soviet airspace.
The book is stronger on reportage than analysis. Not that the analysis is wrong headed, just that there is not really very much of it. Still, it was hard not to be impressed with the effort the Kennedy administration went to in their effort to establish that the weapons of mass destruction were actually in Cuba, in contrast with, the rush to judgement in Iraq by the Bush administration.
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