One Minute to Midnight

Starred review from April 21, 2008
Washington Post
reporter Dobbs (Saboteurs) is a master at telling stories as they unfold and from a variety of perspectives. In this re-examination of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Dobbs combines visits to Cuba, discussions with Russian participants and fingertip command of archival and printed U.S. sources to describe a wild ride that—contrary to the myth of Kennedy’s steel-nerved crisis management—was shaped by improvisation, guesswork and blind luck. Dobbs’s protagonists act not out of malevolence, incompetence or machismo. Kennedy, Khrushchev and their advisers emerge as men desperately seeking a handle on a situation no one wanted and no one could resolve. In a densely packed, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy’s ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution on October 27 and 28. The work’s climax is a detailed reconstruction of the dry-mouthed, sweaty-armpits environment of those final hours before both sides backed down. From first to last, this sustains Dobbs’s case that “crisis management” is a contradiction in terms.

Starred review from May 15, 2008
Beginning with Robert F. Kennedy's own account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, "Thirteen Days", a steady stream of books and articles has sought to explain how this incredible episode came to beand how it (thankfully) didn't end with a mushroom cloud. Building on the existing mountain of writings, "Washington Post" reporter Dobbs ("Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire") has produced a remarkably well-written and detailed account of the weeklong drama in 1962. He draws on a large number of previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban primary and secondary sources and sets his exacting narrative within the broad historical context of Soviet-American relations. Even those who think they know everything about this event will learn new stories and gain further insight into the thinking of the major participantsboth in Washington and in Moscow. This first-rate book belongs very prominently on the groaning shelf of earlier titles devoted to our first (and let us hope our last) nuclear crisis. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 2/1/08.]Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.