Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

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A harrowing account of the Cuban missile crisis reveals how the US and USSR approached nuclear apocalypse. Nearly thirty years post-Cold War, world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties and escalating nuclear threats. To navigate this new atomic age, we must revisit the lessons from the crisis. This narrative offers an international perspective, detailing the complex decision-making that involved key figures like John Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro. Plokhy vividly recounts JFK's interactions with Khrushchev, Castro's defiance, and the Soviet troops' efforts to conceal nuclear installations in Cuba, which were still detected by U-2 spy planes. The account highlights the near misses at sea, where a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine almost launched its weapons. Miscommunication and misinformation often plagued both sides, bringing them perilously close to disaster. Ultimately, nuclear war was avoided due to a shared fear of mutual destruction. Drawing on Soviet archival sources and White House tapes, Plokhy captures the tension of those days and provides insights to help us confront current global challenges.