One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

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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.

What Customers Say About One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War:

I have studied the missile crisis for more than 20 years, and found this to be most objective and insightful book on the subject yet. On top of the outstanding detail it is a very quick and easy read.

CIA estimated 10,000 Soviet troops on the island, when the real number was closer to 40,000. With new photographs and newly released information, Dobbs takes the reader on an hour by hour journey through the dark days of October 1962. An excellent book, detailing one of the most perilous moments in our nations' history. The books main premise is that leaders can only control their military machines so much; that eventually events can escalate to the point of no return. For those who have ever wondered how close we came to thermonuclear war, the answer is in these pages. Dobbs provides details of the fatal U-2 mission of Rudolf Andersen, as well as inside information regarding the strength of the Russian forces already on the island. Kennedy and Kruschev both understood that very important point. The book points out very accurately, that while Kennedy's advisors were looking at things from a military and political perspective, Kennedy was able to see things from a historical viewpoint, and thank God.

This was an enlightening book for me in that is provided a lot of the back room details that had heretofore been unavailable to historians. As such, it is a good accompaniment to previous and early treatments of the political era and the Kennedys. The details made it a little less compelling as a "read" but still I liked it.

military advisors can be so adamantly in favor of a nuclear exchange, it certainly causes one to reflect upon our current world situation in which unstable democracies such as Pakistan and aspiring nuclear club members such as the theocracy governing Iran and the dysfunctional regime in Pyongyang virtually hold the world hostage through their possession of nuclear material and the devices to deliver them.This book should be required reading for anyone aspiring to leadership of a "nuclear club" member, and anyone dealing with such a member. When a national leader such as Castro and top level U.

I was only passingly familiar with both the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Missile Crisis prior to reading this book and therefore learned many new and interesting facts. I was born in 1961, so was only a small child when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred.

He was surrounded by an eclectic crew of advisors, from those equally as naïve and inexperienced as himself (namely his brother Bobby), egghead bureaucrats (such as Robert McNamara) and aging Cold Warriors (LeMay) who were eager for a showdown with the Soviets.Most troubling was the "chain of command" and delegation of authority as a result of which the lowest level bureaucrat or member of the armed forces (on either side) could have triggered a sequence of events leading to ultimate launching of missiles. After reading this account, I can only say that it must have been terrifying to have lived through the Crisis, the more you knew, the more frightening it must have been.

The world was literally on the door step of a large scale nuclear exchange.Kennedy was a young, inexperienced President, fresh off the Bay of Pigs disaster and having been completely dominated by Khrushchev at their summit in Vienna. S.

After reading this book, and reflecting upon the impending nuclear proliferation, I must admit to a high degree of pessimism as it relates to the world's ability to avoid a nuclear exchange.

Interesting details, but the whole point of the book is the same Liberal gruntings: "War Bad," "Nuclear Weapons Bad," "Military Bad," etc., etc.The point of the Cuban Missile Crisis is that it was one of the most significant engagements of the Cold War. This wasn't a "Peace-Time" misunderstanding (because we were never at peace during the Cold War); it was a very real showdown between two adversaries fighting for the world we live in today.You'd better be glad that we won.