Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
SERHII PLOKHY
(ALLEN LANE, 464 PP, £25)
Tablet bookshop price £22.50 • Tel 020 7799 4064

This is a gripping narrative about the most dangerous Cold War crisis. The episode may now seem remote, yet it underlines how vital are cool heads and good communications, and how events can quickly slip out of control once a confrontation – whether global or domestic – begins.

The story is exceptionally well researched, with recently declassified material from KGB archives giving new insight into day-by-day Soviet reactions. Serhii Plokhy – a multiple- award-winning Ukrainian-American writer and professor of history at Harvard University – marshals his complex material well.

The historical context (the weakest part of Plokhy’s book) was the rivalry between the US and the USSR. Equally important were the personalities of John F. Kennedy, the inexperienced US President (inaugurated in January 1961), and Nikita Khrushchev, the tough but relatively unsophisticated leader of the USSR, who thought he could bully Kennedy. The third factor – which greatly upped the stakes – was that, initially, there were no trusted conduits between the two leaders.