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

I can't add much to the praise heaped upon this book by other reviewers. Needless to say that it makes many of the other histories look like the "Cliff" notes versions. I had the privilege to serve on one of the ships involved in the blockade, two years after the event. Many of the "old salts" on board enlightened me on the events. Michael Dodd's book reads like a contemporary thriller. The world truly hung in the balance, and Dodd's paints a fast-moving, yet poignant picture of the events and the two men (Kennedy and Khrushchev) who ultimately chose the path of reason and sanity.

Like most Americans (or maybe not...), I knew that the Cuban Missile Crisis was a dangerous time in the history of our planet. But until I read One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs, I don't think I fully understood how close we came to a full nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. And the common wisdom of Kennedy being the "winner" of this confrontation doesn't capture the reality of how much luck, timing, and conviction played in the event.

Contents:
Americans; Russians; Cubans; "Eyeball to Eyeball"; "Till Hell Freezes Over"; Intel; Nukes; Strike First; Hunt for the Grozny; Shootdown, "Some Sonofabitch"; "Run Like Hell"; Cat and Mouse; "Crate and Return"; Afterword; Acknowledgments and a Note on Sources; Notes; Index

Conventional wisdom paints the Cuban Missile Crisis as a time where Kennedy stood firm over the placement of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. He went "eye to eye" with Khrushchev, and Khrushchev blinked. But Dobbs has exhaustively researched the event and paints a far different picture. Khrushchev introduced both medium-range and tactical nukes into Cuba in order to show Russian superiority and to protect a fellow communist country from a potential US invasion. This made Castro look invincible to himself and his people, and he welcomed the power they represented. When US intel discovered the missiles, the international tension started to rise as Kennedy declared this unacceptable and demanded the removal of the weapons. They also implemented a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent any more aid from showing up on the island. With each passing day (and often each passing hour), the risk that one side or the other would launch an attack continued to grow. Finally, through some backchannel negotiations and implicit promises, Khrushchev gave the order to crate up the missiles and send them back to Russia. But at so many points, the outcome could have been so much different...

Castro was certain that a US invasion was imminent, and wanted Khrushchev to order a pre-emptive strike on the US. The US kept up with overflights of the island to gather intel, and these overflights were seen as pre-invasion forays into Cuban airspace. Soviet SAM sites shot down one spy plane over Cuba, and US military officials were demanding retaliation. In fact, during the entire crisis, most US military officials were pushing for an invasion as well as launching a strike on Russian territory. A US spy plane got lost on a polar flight, overflew Soviet territory, and nearly touched off an exchange right there. While Khrushchev had started the confrontation, he recognized that no one could win in an all-out exchange. And the first missile fired would make it impossible to turn back. Kennedy recognized this also, and was doing all he could to hold off the hawks and give Khrushchev a way to back down while saving face. In the end, Kennedy got the missiles removed, and Khrushchev got an assurance that Cuba would not be invaded, while also getting US nuclear missiles removed from Turkey. But up to that point, there were literally dozens of points when a single person could have pushed a button and started an exchange that would have killed tens of millions of people.

Dobbs does an excellent job in both his research of the event, as well as the storytelling aspect. I felt the rising tension and understood how both sides were operating with incomplete information while trying to protect themselves. It's a literal miracle that the button wasn't pushed somewhere along the way. Students of history and warfare really need to read this book to understand that a nuclear war isn't a winnable proposition, and everything needs to be done to prevent things from getting that close to the edge again.

Who knew history could be so exciting??? Mr. Dobbs presents a well-researched look at the Cuban Missile Crisis. He and his team of researchers managed to dig up new facts and never-before-seen pictures of the event that only add the suspense. The gunsight pictures from the fighters over Cuba were particular riveting. The fighters flew at 500-1000ft over many of the Soviet installations so pictures are very detailed.

Some of the facts that are revealed are surprising. I won't share them here but will say that they only highlight how close the world came to a nuclear war.

This is effectively a Tom Clancy novel -- ABOUT A REAL LIFE EVENT. Well done, Mr. Dobbs. Brilliant work. I couldn't put the book down.

This book provides an outstanding, in-depth account of the Cuban missile crisis, one that confirms some of the mythology we believe about it and repudiates other aspects of the mythology. One that provides a great deal of detail that has never seen the light of day before -- the result of the author's diligent efforts to interview the remaining players, large & small, to read now unclassified materials from the US, Soviet Union & Cuba. Perhaps the most important contribution of the book is to show how the crisis has been misused by subsequent generations, and political leaders, in their own explanations of policy. Secondarily, the book shows that we were closer, rather than farther (at least in my reading) to a nuclear conflagration, than legend suggests. And finally, the book shows the real chaos that is present in these kinds of situations, frankly all kinds of fateful decisionmaking situations. I highly recommend this book.

"One Minute to Midnight" casts a chilling shadow of the near war that involved real WMDs. Unlike any other historian's account- the book reads in a action packed and startling pace that will leave you on the edge of your seat. A reminder of how fragile and impulsive we humans can be.

With just hours to go before crucial deadlines pass, Kennedy and Khrushchev stare down the most lethal holocaust scenario known to mankind. Many facts are told here for the first time- by a veteran reporter with a knack for details and good story-telling. A first rate history book...


Tahir Rahman, author of "We Came in Peace for all Mankind"