Nuclear Folly: A New History Of The Cuban Missile Crisis

Author: Serhii Plokhy

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General Fields

  • : 55.00 NZD
  • : 9780241454732
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Allen Lane
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  • : 0.71
  • : May 2021
  • : 4.1 Centimeters X 16.2 Centimeters X 24 Centimeters
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  • : 55.0
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  • : books

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  • : Serhii Plokhy
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  • : Hardback
  • : 2108
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  • : English
  • : 973.922
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  • : 464
  • : HBTW
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Barcode 9780241454732
9780241454732

Description

The definitive history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the bestselling author of Chernobyl - History of a Tragedy


For more than four weeks in the autumn of 1962 the world teetered. The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave. Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.


In Nuclear Folly, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and of their advisors and commanders on the ground. More often than not, Plokhy argues, the Americans and Soviets simply misread each other, operating under mutual distrust, second-guesses and false information. Despite all of this, nuclear disaster was avoided thanks to one very human reason- fear.


Drawing on the impressive array of primary sources, including the recently declassified KGB files, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama of those tense days. Authoritative, fast-paced and unforgettable, this is the definitive new account of the Cold War's most perilous moment.