ericwelch's review
4.0
The years between 1960 and President Kennedy's death were fraught with danger. At no time in the world's history, perhaps, have we come closer to self-annihilation. It was one crisis after another ending with the Berlin standoff and Cuban Missile Crisis.
Kennedy's first test was the Bay of Pigs. He learned many hard lesson: The CIA could not be relied on; The F.B.I. under Hoover had dirt on Kennedy the director would unhesitatingly use to remain in power; and the military brass often failed to substantiate their judgments with accurate information. It was a time of bully-boy politics. The United States made several attempts on Castros life (interestingly, Castro had never used the applied the word "Socialist" to his country until after the Bay of Pigs fiasco). During this short period the war in Laos and Vietnam had their beginnings, the Berlin wall was created, and atmospheric nuclear bomb testing was conducted by both countries.
The fate of the world was controlled by a millionaire's son and a former metal-worker. Beschloss focuses on these two personalities using many recently released documents. One engaged in reckless extramarital affairs, the other audacious international adventures. The flashpoints were so numerous as to be virtually unbelievable. Simple events like escorting United States officials into Berlin by U.S. army personnel against the wishes of the Soviets and the boarding of Soviet-bloc vessels engaged in international trade with Cuba, spy flights over the Soviet Union, any of these events could have been used as an excuse for war.
To make things worse, there was no system of instant communications such as exists now. Critical messages were relayed by Western Union bicycle messengers. One important message from Kruschev to Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis required eight hours to be translated and transmitted to Washington. That message contained information that Kruschev intended to remove the missiles from Cuba. American air strikes that surely would have begun WW III were planned for the following day. A further delay in the delivery of the message would have resulted in apocalypse.
Some of the detail is simply stunning. For example, following Kennedy's decision not to bomb Cuba after Kruschev's withdrawal of the missiles, Curtis LeMay and George Anderson, two of the Joint Chiefs loudly took the President to task for not starting the war. Perhaps a stronger President would have fired them on the spot. We also learn how many of the President's private licentious liaisons had the potential to compromise his public duties. (One of the pieces of dirt that Hoover held over Kennedy's head was his knowledge that Kennedy was known to have been sleeping with a Nazi spy during WW II. That revelation would have harmed Kennedy immeasurably.
Still, Kennedy's skill at crisis management as well as Kruschev's unwillingness to (not to mention his knowledge of the vast superiority of the United States missile resources) to fight a nuclear war, plus a whole lot of luck left the world intact.
There were so many new documents and especially Soviet politicians still alive who are now willing to be interviewed about that era, that it took Beschloss six years to write about a two-and-a-half-year period.
Kennedy's first test was the Bay of Pigs. He learned many hard lesson: The CIA could not be relied on; The F.B.I. under Hoover had dirt on Kennedy the director would unhesitatingly use to remain in power; and the military brass often failed to substantiate their judgments with accurate information. It was a time of bully-boy politics. The United States made several attempts on Castros life (interestingly, Castro had never used the applied the word "Socialist" to his country until after the Bay of Pigs fiasco). During this short period the war in Laos and Vietnam had their beginnings, the Berlin wall was created, and atmospheric nuclear bomb testing was conducted by both countries.
The fate of the world was controlled by a millionaire's son and a former metal-worker. Beschloss focuses on these two personalities using many recently released documents. One engaged in reckless extramarital affairs, the other audacious international adventures. The flashpoints were so numerous as to be virtually unbelievable. Simple events like escorting United States officials into Berlin by U.S. army personnel against the wishes of the Soviets and the boarding of Soviet-bloc vessels engaged in international trade with Cuba, spy flights over the Soviet Union, any of these events could have been used as an excuse for war.
To make things worse, there was no system of instant communications such as exists now. Critical messages were relayed by Western Union bicycle messengers. One important message from Kruschev to Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis required eight hours to be translated and transmitted to Washington. That message contained information that Kruschev intended to remove the missiles from Cuba. American air strikes that surely would have begun WW III were planned for the following day. A further delay in the delivery of the message would have resulted in apocalypse.
Some of the detail is simply stunning. For example, following Kennedy's decision not to bomb Cuba after Kruschev's withdrawal of the missiles, Curtis LeMay and George Anderson, two of the Joint Chiefs loudly took the President to task for not starting the war. Perhaps a stronger President would have fired them on the spot. We also learn how many of the President's private licentious liaisons had the potential to compromise his public duties. (One of the pieces of dirt that Hoover held over Kennedy's head was his knowledge that Kennedy was known to have been sleeping with a Nazi spy during WW II. That revelation would have harmed Kennedy immeasurably.
Still, Kennedy's skill at crisis management as well as Kruschev's unwillingness to (not to mention his knowledge of the vast superiority of the United States missile resources) to fight a nuclear war, plus a whole lot of luck left the world intact.
There were so many new documents and especially Soviet politicians still alive who are now willing to be interviewed about that era, that it took Beschloss six years to write about a two-and-a-half-year period.
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