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A review by gregbrown
Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis by Martin J. Sherwin
5.0
Outstanding book on the Cuban Missile Crisis, with an introductory section explaining how nuclear policy developed from Hiroshima to 1962.
Reading Sherwin's day-by-day account, you really get the sense of how a dozen or so individuals were trying to feel their way around the contours of the crisis, often based on insufficient or misleading information. It's also excellent for showing how much the government was internally at odds, with Kennedy and McNamara having to spend significant amounts of their attention during key moments just keeping the Joint Chiefs of Staff reined in.
Almost inconceivable that the crisis ended without nuclear war, especially since the US was totally unaware there were already nuclear warheads on the island until decades later. Or that one of the submarines running into the blockade had a nuclear torpedo that they almost fired off!
Reading Sherwin's day-by-day account, you really get the sense of how a dozen or so individuals were trying to feel their way around the contours of the crisis, often based on insufficient or misleading information. It's also excellent for showing how much the government was internally at odds, with Kennedy and McNamara having to spend significant amounts of their attention during key moments just keeping the Joint Chiefs of Staff reined in.
Almost inconceivable that the crisis ended without nuclear war, especially since the US was totally unaware there were already nuclear warheads on the island until decades later. Or that one of the submarines running into the blockade had a nuclear torpedo that they almost fired off!