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jdpellegrino99's review against another edition
4.0
An intimate look at the closest the world came to destruction in the Cold War. A unique perspective and description of the thought process and meetings behind ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
caffeine_books's review against another edition
informative
tense
fast-paced
3.5
A fascinating inside look at the Cuban Missile Crisis from a man in the halls of power. In a concise way RFK was able to show the discussions that were had behind closed doors and the toll it took on his brother. In the final pages he talks about how this event had impacted the world and what it means to hold power. RFK sums up the pressure that these men were under during the crisis when he stated, "...if we erred, we erred not only for ourselves, our futures, our hopes, and our country, but for the lives, futures, hopes and countries of those who had never been given an opportunity to play a role, to vote ay or nay, to make themselves felt."
morgcxn's review against another edition
informative
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Some very important lessons people in power should listen to.
trinidad_gondi's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
pitythechild's review against another edition
4.0
i found this very interesting and i liked reading it but i do feel like information was left out, deliberately or not. this of course may be because he wanted to project a certain image.. he doesn’t even mention removing the missiles from turkey ‼️ it’s funny to read this after nuclear folly because that was so much more detailed and unbiased
oldsouls_lovebooks's review against another edition
3.0
I'm still debating if I should keep it at 3 stars or give it 4 for historical purposes as a first-person account.
I very much enjoyed this memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis told from the point of view of, then, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. While it is really short, partly b/c Bobby didn't have time to add more content to it before he was assassinated (it was released post mortem), I still liked getting the information from someone who was actively engaged in discussions about how to defuse the situation.
"I believe our deliberations proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one individual, of more than one department, and of more than one point of view... There is an important element missing when there is unanimity of viewpoint. Yet that not only can happen; it frequently does when the recommendations are being given to the President of the United States... Frequently I saw advisers adapt their opinions to what they believed President Kennedy and, later, President Johnson wished to hear."
It was a situation that could have easily been made a lot worse and could have had us looking at a much different world today, had things gone awry. Also, based on the sticker that's on the book, apparently they produced a movie under the same title (although based on a different book) that was released in 2000. Since I was still a kid at the time, a movie like this was something I was completely unaware of and would have been uninterested in at the time. I might need to check it out now.
If anyone has seen the movie, was it good?
I very much enjoyed this memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis told from the point of view of, then, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. While it is really short, partly b/c Bobby didn't have time to add more content to it before he was assassinated (it was released post mortem), I still liked getting the information from someone who was actively engaged in discussions about how to defuse the situation.
"I believe our deliberations proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one individual, of more than one department, and of more than one point of view... There is an important element missing when there is unanimity of viewpoint. Yet that not only can happen; it frequently does when the recommendations are being given to the President of the United States... Frequently I saw advisers adapt their opinions to what they believed President Kennedy and, later, President Johnson wished to hear."
It was a situation that could have easily been made a lot worse and could have had us looking at a much different world today, had things gone awry. Also, based on the sticker that's on the book, apparently they produced a movie under the same title (although based on a different book) that was released in 2000. Since I was still a kid at the time, a movie like this was something I was completely unaware of and would have been uninterested in at the time. I might need to check it out now.
If anyone has seen the movie, was it good?
astegs8390's review against another edition
5.0
I love RFK's memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis--a raw, emotional retelling of what occurred in those thirteen days. Used originally as pure research, I reread this book a few times after my theses (used this twice for different papers, one a full thesis, the other a grad school final). RFK gives an excellent account of what was occurring behind the scenes and how various parties felt during the crisis. An excellent, quick, easy read.
kbrownreads's review against another edition
2.0
It was required summer reading. My first mistake was trying to read it simultaneously with Colleen Hoover's It Ends With Us. It is impossible to focus on anything else while reading that book. I reread it twice, then I picked up Thirteen Days. It reads more personally than a textbook, but not by much. It could stand to be more engaging or more personal, but it could also be so much worse. So 2 stars for the mediocre book about the cuban missile crisis that wasn't written by a real author anyway.