High noon in the Cold War : Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis / Max Frankel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frankel, Max, 1930-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.

Kennedy, John F.

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971.

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich.

United States--Foreign relations--Soviet Union.

United States.

International relations.

Soviet Union.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--United States.

Physical Description:

xiv, 206 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Ballantine Books, 2004.

Summary:

One of the giants of American journalism now re-creates an unforgettable time-in which the whole world feared extinction. High Noon in the Cold War captures the Cuban Missile Crisis in a new light, from inside the hearts and minds of the famous men who provoked and, in the nick of time, resolved the confrontation. Using his personal memories of covering the conflict, and gathering evidence from recent records and new scholarship and testimony, Max Frankel corrects widely held misconceptions about the game of "nuclear chicken" played by John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev in October 1962, when Soviet missiles were secretly planted in Cuba and aimed at the United States. High Noon in the Cold War portrays an embattled young American president-not jaunty and callow as widely believed, but increasingly calm and statesmanlike-and a Russian ruler who was not only a "wily old peasant" but an insecure belligerent desperate to achieve credibility. Here, too, are forgotten heroes like John McCone, the conservative Republican CIA head whose intuition made him a crucial figure in White House debates. In detailing the disastrous miscalculations of the two superpowers (the United States thought the Soviets would never deploy missiles to Cuba; the Soviets thought the United States would have to acquiesce) and how Kennedy and Khrushchev beat back hotheads in their own councils, this fascinating book, written by a master reporter, chronicles the whole story of the scariest encounter of the Cold War.

Contents:

1 The Crisis in Memory 3

2 The Palms of Spring 7

3 The Missiles of October 19

4 K v. K 43

5 The Thorn in the Flesh 59

6 The Rockets Hit Home 75

7 Only One Will Face the Bull 101

8 And Who Will Blink? 115

9 No Very Good War 141

10 All of Them? 157

11 How Far the Brink 173.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [187]-191) and index.

ISBN:

0345465059

OCLC:

54692262