DEFCON-2: Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis - Hardcover

Norman Polmar; John D. Gresham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471670227 ISBN 13: 9780471670223

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2006

Synopsis

The closest we've ever come to the end of the world

"DEFCON-2 is the best single volume on the Cuban Missile Crisis published and is an important contribution to the history of the Cold War. Beyond the military and political facts of the crisis, Polmar and Gresham sketch the personalities that created and coped with the crisis. They also show us how close we came to the edge without becoming sensationalistic."
—Larry Bond, bestselling author of Dangerous Ground

Spy-satellite and aerial-reconnaissance photos reveal that one of the United States's bitterest enemies may be acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the means to use them against the American homeland. Administration officials refuse to accept intelligence professionals' interpretation of these images and order an end to spy missions over the offending nation. More than a month later, after vicious infighting, the president orders the spy missions to resume. The new photos reveal an array of ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking deep within U.S. territory. It appears that the missiles will be fully operational within one week.

This is not a plot setup for a suspense novel; it is the true story of the most terrifying moment in the 45-year Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union: the Cuban Missile Crisis. DEFCON-2 tells this tale as it has never been told before—from both sides, with the help of hundreds of recently declassified U.S. and Soviet documents, as well as interviews with numerous former spies, military figures, and government officials who speak out here for the first time.

About this title

About the Author

NORMAN POLMAR is a regular commentator on the Discovery, A&E, and History channels, and the author of more than forty books on naval, aviation, and intelligence subjects. He has served as an advisor or consultant on defense issues to three U.S. senators and two members of the House of Representatives, as well as to several Navy and Defense officials.

JOHN D. GRESHAM collaborated with Tom Clancy on his bestselling series of guided tours of military units, such as Submarine and Special Forces. He is also the coauthor of an upcoming book on the Special Forces during the war in Afghanistan.

From the Back Cover

Anyone who lived through it remembers the terror, the uncertainty, and the dread that in an instant the world as we knew it might cease to exist. For the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the future seemed to hang by a thread; nuclear holocaust not only seemed possible, but likely. U.S. military forces around the world were placed on high alert, and American nuclear bombers and land-based missiles were moved to DEFCON-2: the highest state of readiness short of war. The military forces of the Soviet Union were moved to a similar level of readiness, and both sides were ready for World War III.

DEFCON-2 presents the most complete, lively, and shocking account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the events leading up to it that has ever been published. Drawing from hundreds of newly declassified American and Soviet documents, as well as interviews with numerous individuals who were directly involved in the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the crisis, this chilling narrative is the first to fully reveal how close the world came to Armageddon in 1962.

Authors Norman Polmar and John Gresham provide a detailed description of the run-up to the crisis in the summer of 1962. They demonstrate how the Kennedy administration's virulent antipathy to Fidel Castro and tendency toward Cold War gamesmanship fueled Nikita Khrushchev's desire to shield the Castro regime, even as he tried to redress the Soviet inferiority in strategic missiles that could strike the American homeland.

Even more unsettling than this face-off between strong and determined world leaders are the startling number of "small" events and details, any one of which might have triggered a worldwide conflagration. As the crisis progressed, a U2 spyplane was lost over the North Pole and eastern Siberia; an exhausted Soviet submarine commander in the Caribbean considered using a torpedo armed with a nuclear warhead if necessary; and urgent communications between the two superpowers depended, in large part, on the reliability of Western Union messenger boys on bicycles!

As Tom Clancy remarks in his memorable foreword to this unforgettable tale: "The reality of the confrontation in October 1962 was more bizarre and more frightening than anything I have written." Just how strange things became is revealed in interviews with the U.S. Air Force photo interpreter who first sighted the Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba, a KGB agent stationed in Washington in 1962, a U.S. Navy officer stationed on the quarantine line during the crisis, and yes, that Soviet submarine commander who, for a few crucial minutes, held the fate of the world in his hands.

Tom Clancy said it: truth is stranger and scarier than fiction. And DEFCON-2 is more gripping, more thrilling, and more terrifying than any novel you will ever read.

DEFCON-2 presents the most complete, lively, and shocking account of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the events leading up to it that has ever been published. Drawing from hundreds of newly declassified American and Soviet documents, as well as interviews with numerous individuals who were directly involved in the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the crisis, this chilling narrative is the first to fully reveal how close the world came to Armageddon in 1962.

Authors Norman Polmar and John Gresham provide a detailed description of the run-up to the crisis in the summer of 1962. They demonstrate how the Kennedy administration's virulent antipathy to Fidel Castro and tendency toward Cold War gamesmanship fueled Nikita Khrushchev's desire to shield the Castro regime, even as he tried to redress the Soviet inferiority in strategic missiles that could strike the American homeland.

Even more unsettling than this face-off between strong and determined world leaders are the startling number of "small" events and details, any one of which might have triggered a worldwide conflagration. As the crisis progressed, a U2 spyplane was lost over the North Pole and eastern Siberia; an exhausted Soviet submarine commander in the Caribbean considered using a torpedo armed with a nuclear warhead if necessary; and urgent communications between the two superpowers depended, in large part, on the reliability of Western Union messenger boys on bicycles!

As Tom Clancy remarks in his memorable foreword to this unforgettable tale: "The reality of the confrontation in October 1962 was more bizarre and more frightening than anything I have written." Just how strange things became is revealed in interviews with the U.S. Air Force photo interpreter who first sighted the Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba, a KGB agent stationed in Washington in 1962, a U.S. Navy officer stationed on the quarantine line during the crisis, and yes, that Soviet submarine commander who, for a few crucial minutes, held the fate of the world in his hands.

Tom Clancy said it: truth is stranger and scarier than fiction. And DEFCON-2 is more gripping, more thrilling, and more terrifying than any novel you will ever read.

Reviews

Veteran military analysts Polmar (Spyplane, etc.) and Gresham (Seapower, etc.) distinguish their examination of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis from scores of other books on the subject by detailing how military maneuvers undertaken months in advance led to the tense showdown. The book's title, which is also the name of a Discovery Channel documentary based on this volume, comes from the acronym for Defense Condition Two, the Unites States' highest state of military alert short of war. The only time America went to DEFCON-2 during the Cold War was on October 22, 1962, the day that President Kennedy publicly denounced the Soviet Union's construction of missile launching sites in Cuba. The authors, who interviewed Russian, American and Cuban military men who had leading roles in the showdown, provide new logistical information on how the Soviet Union moved a small nuclear arsenal to Cuba. They deftly meld accounts of what happened in the sea and air with descriptions of the political and intelligence operations in Washington and Moscow. Thoroughly researched and suspenseful, their book is an excellent choice for fans of Cold War history. (Feb.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471670227
• ISBN 13: 9780471670223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 412