Gambling with Armageddon : nuclear roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945-1962 / Martin J. Sherwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sherwin, Martin J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.

Nuclear crisis control--United States--History--20th century.

Nuclear crisis control.

Arms race--History--20th century.

Arms race.

History.

World politics--1945-1955.

World politics.

World politics--1955-1965.

Nuclear warfare--United States--History.

Nuclear warfare.

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

Kennedy, John F.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 604 pages, 16 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.

Summary:

"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer comes the first effort to set the Cuban Missile Crisis, with its potential for nuclear holocaust, in a wider historical narrative of the Cold War--how such a crisis arose, and why at the very last possible moment it didn't happen. In this groundbreaking look at the Cuban Missile Crisis, Martin Sherwin not only gives us a riveting sometimes hour-by-hour explanation of the crisis itself, but also explores the origins, scope, and consequences of the evolving place of nuclear weapons in the post WWII world. Mining new sources and materials, and going far beyond the scope of earlier works on this critical face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union--triggered when Khruschev began installing missiles in Cuba at Castro's behest--Sherwin shows how this volatile event was an integral part of the wider Cold War and was a consequence of nuclear arms. Gambling with Armageddon looks in particular at the original debate in the Truman Administration about using the Atomic Bomb; the way in which President Eisenhower relied on the threat of massive retaliation to project U.S. power in the early Cold War era; and how President Kennedy, though unprepared to deal with the Bay of Pigs debacle, came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here too is a clarifying picture of what was going on in Khruschev's Soviet Union. Martin Sherwin has spent his career in the study of nuclear weapons and how they have shaped our world--Gambling with Armageddon is an outstanding capstone to his work thus far"-- Provided by publisher.

Sherwin sets the Cuban Missile Crisis, with its potential for nuclear holocaust, in a wider historical narrative of the Cold War: how such a crisis arose, and why at the very last possible moment it didn't happen. He gives us a riveting explanation of the crisis itself, while also exploring the origins, scope, and consequences of the evolving place of nuclear weapons in the post WWII world. Sherwin looks in particular at the original debate in the Truman Administration about using the Atomic Bomb; the way in which President Eisenhower relied on the threat of massive retaliation to project U.S. power in the early Cold War era; and how President Kennedy, though unprepared to deal with the Bay of Pigs debacle, came of age during the Cuban Missile Crisis. -- adapted from publisher info

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. A Reflection On Luck In History

2. World War II I Was About To Begin

3. "We Will Die, But We Will Sink Them All"

4. Capt. Vasily Alexandrovich Arkhipov

5. The Long Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945

1962

BOOK I THE MAKING OF THE NUCLEAR AGE, 1945

pt. ONE TRUMAN AND STALIN

6. "This Is The Greatest Thing In History"

7. "The Secret Of The Atomic Bomb Might Be Hard To Keep"

8. "Our Momentary Superiority"

pt. TWO EISENHOWER, KHRUSHCHEV, CASTRO, AND THE "WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION"

9. "We Face A Battle To Extinction"

10. "An Extraordinary Departure"

11. "There Is Not Communists But Cubanists"

12. "General Disarmament Is The Most Important"

13. "We Cannot Let The Present Government There Go On"

pt. THREE KENNEDY, KHRUSHCHEV, CASTRO, AN I) THE BAY OF PIGS

14. "Eisenhower Is Going To Escape"

15. "Aes Wholly Disapproves Of The Project"

16. "Cuba Might Become A Sino-Soviet Bloc Missile Base"

17. "It Will Be A Cold Winter"

BOOK II THE THIRTEEN DAYS, OCTOBER 16

28, 1962

pt. FOUR KHRUSHCHEV'S MISSILES

18. "What If We Put Our Nuclear Missiles In Cuba?"

19. "Without Our Help Cuba Will Be Destroyed"

pt. FIVE OCTOBER 16 (TUESDAY), DAY ONE

20. "They're There"

21. "Actions Were Begun On October 3 To Prepare For Military Action Against Cuba"

22. "Bomb The Missiles; Invade Cuba"

23. "I'll Tell My Big Brother On You"

24. "Negotiation And Sanity, Always"

25. "Last Month I Should Have Said That We Don't Care"

pt. SIX OCTOBER 17 (WEDNESDAY)

OCTOBER 22 (MONDAY)

26. "Possible Courses Of Action And Unanswered Questions"

27. "What Action Lessens The Chance Of A Nuclear Exchange?"

28. "Flipping A Coin As To Whether You End Up With World War Or Not"

29. The Chief Confronts The Chiefs

30. "Pull The Group Together!"

31. "I Trust That You Will Support Me"

32. "Nuclear War That Week Certainly Was Not Excluded From His Mind"

33. "What's Edp?"

pt. SEVEN OCTOBER 22 (MONDAY)

OCTOBER 26 (FRIDAY)

34. "We May Have The War In The Next Twenty-Four Hours"

35. "Kennedy Sleeps With A Wooden Knife"

36. "A Game Which We Don't Know The Ending Of"

37. "The Mobs Turned Up In London Instead Of Havana"

38. "You Would Have Been Impeached"

39. "We Are Trying To Convey A Political Message Not Start A War"

40. "A Russian Submarine

-Almost Anything But That"

41. "Events Have Gone Too Far"

42. "Trade Them Out Or Take Them Out"

43. "Time Is Very Urgent"

pt. EIGHT OCTOBER 27(SATURDAY)

OCTOBER 28 (SUNDAY)

44. "Let Us Take Measures To Untie That Knot"

45. "Liquidate The Bases In Turkey And We Win"

46. "To Any Rational Man It Will Look Like A Very Fair Trade"

47. "Attacking Sunday Or Monday"

48. "We're Going To Have To Take Our Weapons Out Of Turkey"

49. "An Act Of Legitimate Defense"

50. "There Is Very Little Time To Resolve This Issue"

51. "You Got Us Into This, Now You Get Us Out"

52. "I Thought It Was My Last Meal"

53. "We Have Ordered Our Officers To Stop Building Bases"

pt. NINE EIES AND LEGACIES

54. "Most Of Them Did Not Like Adlai"

55. "It Ain't Necessarily So ".

Notes:

"This is a Borzoi Book" -- title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [471]-569) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Sherwin, Martin J., 1937- Gambling with Armageddon

ISBN:

9780307266880

0307266885

OCLC:

1132240776