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Rating: 
Summary: deja vu
Review: A brilliant book, beautifully written and rigorously researched. It's also scary in its conclusions--and thoroughly plausible.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent subject, disappointing account...
Review: Disappointing...this book is one of the most extensively researched books that I've ever read, but that's only half the story. The mark of a good history book (in my opinion) is "readability" and this is where this book falls short. I found myself trudging through this, trying to disect the numerous new details brought out by the authors from both the American and Soviet side. When I was done, I usually had to re-read the section to get a firmer understanding and that to me is what makes up a classsroom textbook, not a good history book. There are better books on the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Beschloss..."The Crisis Years", Brugioni..."Eyeball to Eyeball...even May/Zelikow "the Kennedy Tapes") that I'd recommend before this.
Rating: 
Summary: Very fine book on the most dangerous event of the Cold War
Review: If you are interested in finding out what the Cuban Missile Crisis was actually about and how it was conducted and resolved, this is a fantastic book. Not only do we get the context of what went on during the Eisenhower administration when Castro came to power, but we get the context of what was going on in the Soviet Union as well.I did not know that Raul Castro was the committed communist who advocated closer ties with the USSR. That Fidel was anti-US was always clear, but it was most interesting to read about how the connection between Cuba and the USSR developed and its limitations because of Fidel's undisciplined and independent nature. The back-channel diplomacy was also very interesting to read about and why we didn't learn about the Jupiter missile removal from Turkey until much later was another story I wanted to understand. For me, the most useful things I learned were the lurching and stumbling nature of the way the USSR and the US played off of and against each other. Not only were both sides trying to balance the other side, each side was also trying to be provocative as well. The book also notes that the Soviets saw the Kennedy assassination as the work of a far right wing conspiracy led by H.L. Hunt, although they had no real evidence but the word of journalist Paul Ward. They refused to believe that the President's security services could have allowed a lone madman to shoot the President (as was actually the case). The book ends with a brief discussion of coup that removed Khrushchev and put Brezhnev in power. The book is written very well and has a rich supply of notes and documentation backing up the story the authors report. I think it is a fascination and important book from the most dangerous period in the Cold War.
Rating:
Summary: Very fine book on the most dangerous event of the Cold War
Review: If you are interested in finding out what the Cuban Missile Crisis was actually about and how it was conducted and resolved, this is a fantastic book. Not only do we get the context of what went on during the Eisenhower administration when Castro came to power, but we get the context of what was going on in the Soviet Union as well. I did not know that Raul Castro was the committed communist who advocated closer ties with the USSR. That Fidel was anti-US was always clear, but it was most interesting to read about how the connection between Cuba and the USSR developed and its limitations because of Fidel's undisciplined and independent nature. The back-channel diplomacy was also very interesting to read about and why we didn't learn about the Jupiter missile removal from Turkey until much later was another story I wanted to understand. For me, the most useful things I learned were the lurching and stumbling nature of the way the USSR and the US played off of and against each other. Not only were both sides trying to balance the other side, each side was also trying to be provocative as well. The book also notes that the Soviets saw the Kennedy assassination as the work of a far right wing conspiracy led by H.L. Hunt, although they had no real evidence but the word of journalist Paul Ward. They refused to believe that the President's security services could have allowed a lone madman to shoot the President (as was actually the case). The book ends with a brief discussion of coup that removed Khrushchev and put Brezhnev in power. The book is written very well and has a rich supply of notes and documentation backing up the story the authors report. I think it is a fascination and important book from the most dangerous period in the Cold War.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive and well-documented book
Review: It was frightening to live through the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was a little kid but still recall how scared and tense my parents and teachers were: an all-pervasive feeling of dread. I'm sure today's children feel the same about 9-11-01, and in future years they may have memories about this September's tragedy similar to mine about those 13 days in 1962. Fursenko and Naftali have done an admirable and thorough job detailing the rise of Castro and Cuban-American-Soviet relations during that period. It was overdue, since classics such as Graham Allison's Essence of Decision did not have the benefit of access to Soviet archives. The one criticism I have is that the authors almost overwhelm you with facts at the expense of interpretation. I didn't, for example, get a good sense of exactly why Fidel threw his lot in with the Soviets back in '60 when it was clear Moscow intended to keep Cuba going as a sugar colony--only at less than world prices! (...)
Rating:
Summary: Simply a great book
Review: Naftali and Fursenko have done a excelent piece of research in this interesting book about the Cuban Missile Crisis. In particular, they highlight the close to insane policies of the Russian Government as they sought to bolster the Cuban regime from US attack. This book gives the whole picture including the bay of pigs and other US misadventures that drove Castro into the Soviet orbit. The most fascinating section for me was the part on Castro and way he was compelled to adopt Soviet style communism. The US simply did not leave him any choice. A balanced look at high powered diplomacy that had gone mad.
Rating:
Summary: More exciting than a Clancy or DeMille book
Review: This book, with the benefit of research in Soviet archives, tells a fearsome story--more scary than living thru it, as I did, since we did not know what was going on in the corridors of power. It is pretty awesome to think that in Washington there were hawks who were in favor of invasion, apparently not knowing or not caring that atomic weapons would have been used to resist the invasion. I read Michael Beschloss' The Crisis Years on Oct 25, 2000, and it was a similar tension-filled read. The Kennedys come out in this book in the end looking pretty good--at least better than the LeMay types. But Kennedy bashers can find plenty in this book to revel in, also. It is a good book.
Rating:
Summary: One hell of a spotlight on the Cuban Missile Crisis
Review: This is one of those rare historical works where the facts are bolder than any fictional account would dare to be. It is a page turner that puts to rest some of the conventional wisdom of the Khrushchev-Kennedy cold war period. For those of us who lived through those dark days, it is a startling revelation about what really went on behind the scenes and how close we nearly came to total annihilation. For those not yet born, it is an insightful portrait of the times and a microcosm of the cold war. The book never seeks to place blame; its apparent goal is only to reveal as many facts, communications and miscommunications that forrmed the calculus for all the critical decisions of the times. It reads like a good spy novel and has the additional capacity to inform. A great read
Rating:
Summary: Impressive and well-documented book
Review: This was an excellent impartial account of the Cuban Missile Crisis. No one is favored or criticized for their actions. Fortunately, the wiser heads on both sides ruled. There are some startling revealations as well. For instance: Castro was originally not a communist and we planned several invasions of Cuba.
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