The missiles of October

The story of the Cuban missile crisis has attained the status of myth: President John F. Kennedy was stunned to learn that Khrushchev, in a naked display of adventurism, had put missiles in Cuba. Kennedy gave Khrushchev an ultimatum: remove the missiles and have peace, or keep them and risk war. Khrushchev backed down, and Kennedy attained his finest hour. So goes the legend. But the reality, as chronicled by Robert Smith Thompson, penetrates to the very heart of our illusions about the Cold War and the Kennedy mystique. Using recently declassified documents, Thompson reexamines the intricate diplomatic posturings and often covert U.S., Soviet, and Cuban actions that led up to the confrontation, giving grounds for a dramatically different account of the crisis. Starting with the unprecedented political machine - dominated by Joe Kennedy - that pushed JFK into the White House, Thompson recreates the climate of anti-Communist hysteria, political one-upsmanship, and dynastic ambitions that infused the Kennedy administration, particularly their obsession with Communist Cuba and Fidel Castro. That obsession found its lightning rod when Kennedy learned that the Soviets were placing missi