La crisis de los misiles de Cuba 1962

In this new book, Max Hastings focuses on the Cuban Missile Crisis—the thirteen days in October 1962 that kept the world on the brink of nuclear catastrophe. He approaches this historic moment from the diverse perspectives of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots, and British bomb-disposal experts. Drawing on eyewitness interviews, archival documents, diaries, and White House tape recordings, he presents a vivid portrait of the Cold War as it played out in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev’s USSR, and John F. Kennedy’s United States. Moving beyond mere military history and the mechanics of confrontation, Hastings delves into the underlying causes of the conflict. He explores everything from the state of US-allied Cuba under Batista to Castro’s fiercely anti-American regime, as well as the Soviet sense of weakness vis-à-vis the United States following World War II and their need to reassert themselves in the Cold War standoff. The Cuban crisis highlighted the perils of the nuclear age and the difficulty of formulating sound strategy when the adversary is misunderstood. Hastings offers a detailed, fresh account of the attitudes and actions of the Russians, Cubans, and Americans involved, while analyzing the global climate of tension during one of the most critical episodes of the second half of the twentieth century.