Above and Beyond

February 26, 2018
Sherman (coauthor of The Ice Bucket Challenge) and Tougias (A Storm Too Soon) team up again, after The Finest Hours and Boston Strong, to give an original, if uneven, account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, incorporating the experiences of two U.S. pilots alongside President Kennedy’s. Using a novelistic approach that involves dramatically recreated scenes and interweaving story lines, the authors go back to the early lives and Korean War service of pilots Rudy Anderson and Chuck Maultsby, while also covering Kennedy’s WWII service and postwar political ascension. These different narrative strands connect during the 13 days of the crisis: Maultsby, on an Arctic mission, accidentally flies into Russian airspace, ratcheting up tensions with the Soviets, while Anderson flies one of the U-2 spy planes monitoring the missile sites in Cuba. The focus on two lesser-known figures gives the book an added dimension beyond other Cuban Missile Crisis histories, but the pilots’ stories feel thin and underdeveloped. The book, however, hums when describing the strategic maneuvering in Washington. The authors will leave readers with a greater appreciation of the work required to combat the “miscalculations, incorrect interpretations, and breakdowns in command and control that could lead to war.” Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management.

March 1, 2018
For 13 days in October 1962, during the hottest part of the Cold War, the fate of humanity was at stake.During those two weeks, American U-2 spy planes flying above Cuba had discovered Soviet missile sites in an advanced stage of assembly. In this new history of the Cuban missile crisis, Sherman and Tougias (co-authors: The Finest Hours: The True Story of the Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue, 2009) sketch the swift development of the elegant U-2 commissioned by the CIA and highlight the signal courage and capability of its dedicated pilots. At the time, surveillance data showed that in less than two weeks, the Soviet nuclear missiles would be fully operational. President John F. Kennedy, keenly familiar with danger and death due to his service in World War II, prepared for World War III, ready to engage the Soviets in the Caribbean and destroy hundreds of targets in the Soviet Union. He assembled an advisory group that included, among many other significant figures, Allen Dulles, Robert McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Bobby Kennedy, and Curtis LeMay. There were also functionaries on both sides who might trigger war inadvertently or, if they were short-tempered, even deliberately. The authors have assembled a page-turning narrative of their deliberations using extracts from White House tapes as well as archival research and conversations with some of those involved. At the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev was troubled and inscrutable, while Kennedy was deliberative. Opting for a naval blockade, he kept all forces at full readiness. Only at the last hours did diplomacy prevail. Kennedy was able to recall the ships, the Army, the Marines on standby, and the bombers bearing nuclear weapons. Thinking of what a lesser commander in chief might have done, readers will shudder.An edifying history that, given America's current global diplomatic stance, is also timely and hopefully instructive to those faced with similarly dire circumstances.

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April 1, 2018

The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the hottest confrontation of the Cold War, bringing the United States and Soviet Union to a near nuclear war. U-2 planes, which flew at a ten-mile altitude, were the only aircraft that could provide President John F. Kennedy with the intelligence and surveillance photographs to challenge Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev's assertion that only defensive missiles were housed in Cuba. Sherman and Tougias (coauthors, The Finest Hours) present an absorbing account of heroic U-2 pilots Rudolph Anderson (1927-63) and Charles Maultsby (1926-98) and their harrowing missions. Steve Heyser, another pilot summed up U-2 training: "Your mind never relaxes. If it does, you're dead." Sadly, this proved prophetic, as Anderson, who flew over Cuba more than any other U-2 pilot, was shot down and killed by a Soviet surface-to-air missile. The most fascinating chapters describe Anderson and Maultsby's lives, training, and assignments, especially Maultsby's catastrophic flight over the Arctic Circle that drifted into Soviet Union air space. VERDICT Fascinating for general and informed audiences. Historians will appreciate the stories of the pilots and the importance of the U-2 to the American flight program, although they might find the day-to-day retelling of the Missile Crisis familiar.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2018
In October 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union stood on the precipice of nuclear conflict after the discovery by U-2 high-altitude surveillance flights of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Most subsequent accounts of the crisis focus on negotiations and deliberations at the highest levels of the opposing governments. But it was on the ground, in the air, and at sea where military forces on both sides were on hair-trigger alert status. For Sherman and Tougias (The Finest Hours, 2014), two of the unsung heroes were U-2 pilots Chuck Maultsby and Rudy Anderson. Before and during the crisis, U-2 flights over Cuba were regular. The aircraft were able to fly at 70,000 feet, beyond the range of opposing fighter jets, but they were unarmed and vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles (SAMS). The authors eloquently convey the difficulties and tensions involved in these flights, dramatically magnified during the crisis, when miscalculations could instigate disastrous response by either side. At the center of the crisis, of course, was President Kennedy, who had to sift through the experiences and information provided by the flights. This superbly written, tense, and sometimes sad account views the Cuban Missile Crisis from an unusual and telling perspective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)