The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Ernest R. May (Editor), Philip Zelikow (Editor)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $4.19

  In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of war, each brandishing enough nuclear weapons to obliterate civilization in the Northern Hemisphere. For two weeks the inner circle of President Kennedy's National Security Council debated what to do, twice coming to the point of attacking Soviet military units in Cuba - units equipped for nuclear retaliation. All through the situation, unbeknown to many of the participants except the President himself, tape was rolling, capturing everything for posterity. This book presents the full authenticated transcripts of those recordings, showing the moment by moment decision-making. At the centre is President Kennedy, and in one segment the President alone speaks his thoughts to the machine. In the last meeting we hear him explaining and defending the formula that finally defused the crisis. With him throughout are his team from the State Department including Dean Rusk, George Ball, Llewellyn Thompson and the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy. All are identified and put into their proper context by the editors, and an introduction aims to make sense of the drama within the history of the Cold War and the Kennedy administration.

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $33.39

  For sheer drama, this work of history may never be duplicated. The events of the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold in the actual words of President John F. Kennedy and his top advisers. Now available in a new, concise edition, this book retains its gripping sense of history in the making. [A] splendid achievement, as powerful and exciting a book as one is likely to read this year... -Barry Gewen, New York Times Book Review Gripping history. -Richard J. Tofel, Wall Street Journal [M]esmerizing. I was utterly fascinated...the best, fullest account of crisis yet and will remain so for decades to come. -Stephen E. Ambrose [A]s close as most people will ever get to being a fly on the wall during the discussions of leaders. -Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, James G. Blight