William Collins Abyss, Non-Fiction, Hardback, Max Hastings
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Price: £30.00
Brand: William Collins
Description: A Times History Book of the Year 2022 From the #1 bestselling historian Max Hastings 'the heart-stopping story of the missile crisis' Daily Telegraph. William Collins Abyss, Non-Fiction, Hardback, Max Hastings - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Harper Collins
Product ID: 9780008364991
Delivery cost: Spend £20 and get free shipping
Dimensions: 159x240mm
Keywords: Cold war,cuba,atomic,bomb,nuclear,strike,Castro,JFK,John F Kennedy,President,deployment,Nikita,Krushchev,Soviet Union,Soviets,USSR,Russia,Kremlin,national security,NATO,Bay of Pigs,United Nations,USA,US,America,White house
ISBN: 9780008364991
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Author: OKCole
Rating: 5
Review: Unreservedly, 5 stars. I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the time, I lived about 30 miles, as the crow flies, from the US nuclear submarine depot in the Holy Loch. I remember going to bed at night wondering if I would waken next morning. A US friend told me his father, who lived very near New Year at the time, was similarly worried. The opening chapters start with a description of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and continue with the risen to power of Castro, describing the love - hate relationships many Cubans felt towards the USA and the quasi-colonial actions and behaviours of the US Government and many businesses towards Cuba and its citizens. This provide fertile ground for what was to follow. Hastings recounts well the rise to power of Khrushchev and his character, the early meeting between Khrushchev and Kennedy and how it set the scene for the Crisis itself. Aided by the recording system Kennedy had installed in the White House, we are given a first hand account of the manner in which Kennedy establish his ExComm team and the masterly way in which he balanced the views and recommendations of the very hawkish advisors, especially Curtis LeMay and others in the US military , against the pacifist recommendations of some diplomats and seasoned policy experts. Robert McNamara had a leading role which is all the more striking given his perceived later failure during the Vietnam War. Throughout, Kennedy is painted as balanced, even-handed and intelligent although he did make mistakes. These usually involved trying to rationalise Khrushchev's actions when, as Hasting describes it, he was all too often gambling. We can now, in the light of what's happening in Ukraine, whether Putin is indulging in brinkmanship or gambling? As much as Kennedy dominated the events in the White House, Khrushchev did likewise in the Kremlin according to the more limited sources available to Hastings. The other key individual in the centre of the crisis was Fidel Castro. Hastings is generous in describing his role in the Cuban revolution but also highlights his many failures as a national leader once independence had been gained. His most damning criticism comes in detailing Castro's blind aggression, to the point of trying to goad Khrushchev to use nuclear weapons in the midst of the crisis. We can only be thankful that, in spite of his recklessness, Khrushchev was wise enough not to turn over control of nuclear weapons to Castro. We should all fear that sometime in the future, a similar crisis will emerge between 2 regional powers, or indeed again between 2 superpowers, but with leaders who are more like Curtis LeMay or Fidel Castro in charge. Although the sequence of events is now in the public domain, Hastings manages to convey well the tension of the times as well as describing some close-run events which were not public knowledge for some time but could have triggered the escalation most people feared. In the final chapters, the aftermath and longer term consequences are nicely told. I have read more than a few of Sir Max Hastings's books and consider this to be one of his best. Some friends and family members might well be receiving a copy as a seasonal gift! Addendum. On reflecting further about the book, what also come to mind is the importance of West Berlin as it was then. I had forgotten how tense the security situation involving West Berlin. It was 14 months since the Berlin Wall was built, almost exactly 12 months since US and Soviet tanks directly confronted each other and, 8 months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy gave his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Sir Max Hastings weaves the tensions and perceived threats involving West Berlin well into the fabric of the events of October 1962.
Author: Tony617
Rating: 4
Review: After his rather disappointing "Operation Pedestal" which relied too heavily on secondary sources, Max is back to what he does best. I.e. trawling and analysing masses of primary sources to provide a fact based narrative, but garnishing this with revealing interviews from people who were there and contemporary media coverage - drawing the reader in to what would otherwise be a very dry monologue. COVID lockdowns unfortunately affected his ability to travel to Cuba or Russia in person, and the interviews had to be done by an assistant. Also, the interviewees were very young and a best junior participants in the events that they observed 60 years ago. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book on a historically important topic. 5 stars would be too generous because it would benefit from some tighter editing and the loss of 50 pages (there's a bit too much background and scene setting), but I would give it 4.5 if I could.
