One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

great book. a quick read with a good history for the situation and key players.

Lots of new information in this well researched book, especially from the Soviet archives. Informative and disturbing; show that no matter how well-controlled your management of nuclear weapons is, there is always an unpredictable human element that can disrupt the delicate balance of negotiations.

One of the best books I've read in a long time. For any cold-war history junkies this is a must-read. For those of you who don't know how close we came to the end, it's a wake-up call, especially when taken in the context of recent US foreign policy....

Amazing research that in extreme detail explains the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis, while explaining and debunking many myths such as "eyeball to eyeball" and Krushchev's (alleged) capitulation.