One Minute to Midnight cover art

One Minute to Midnight

Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

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One Minute to Midnight

By: Michael Dobbs
Narrated by: Bob Walter
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About this listen

 In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle of those near-fatal days, Dobbs reveals some startling new incidents that illustrate how close we came to Armageddon.

Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev’s plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the accidental overflight of the Soviet Union by an American spy plane; the movement of Soviet nuclear warheads around Cuba during the tensest days of the crisis; the activities of CIA agents inside Cuba; and the crash landing of an American F-106 jet with a live nuclear weapon on board.

Dobbs takes us inside the White House and the Kremlin as Kennedy and Khrushchev agonize over the possibility of war. He shows how these two leaders recognized the terrifying realities of the nuclear age while Castro–never swayed by conventional political considerations–demonstrated the messianic ambition of a man selected by history for a unique mission. Dobbs brings us onto the decks of American ships patrolling Cuba; inside sweltering Soviet submarines and missile units as they ready their warheads; and onto the streets of Miami, where anti-Castro exiles plot the dictator’s overthrow.©2008 Michael Dobbs; (P)2008 Books on Tape 20th Century Military Modern Political Science Politics & Government Weapons & Warfare World Russia Soviet Union War Espionage Cold War Latin America Nuclear War Socialism Submarine Imperialism Air Force Vietnam War Imperial Japan
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You cannot have 'knots per hour' when referring to speed. It is either Nautical Miles per Hour or Knots. There were a number of this style of error in the book that should have been picked up in proof reading by a suitable technical reviewer. These errors were obvious to me, and because of them, I found myself questioning how many political errors of fact were made. Benefit of the doubt, I assume none. The book is a detailed coverage, well researched, and worth reading or listening to. It benefits from recent declassified sources, where many former accounts had to infer (guess). Would I read another Michael Dobbs book? Absolutely, yes! Buy it and enjoy.

Minor technical errors, but still very good.

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This book is exceptional in both its novel-like structure, and historical content.

The book manages to stay packed to the brim with information, while at the same time never dragging on.

Constantly engaging and sometimes hilarious, this is the one of the best history books ever written.

The best history book, I've ever read/heard.

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