ePub The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory: Myths versus Reality (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) by Sheldon M. Stern in History

Review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Revelations from President Kennedy's secret tapes show how the Cuban Missile Crisis was really resolvedBy Brad RockwellThis is one of the most remarkable books of all time. Not only does the author show how close to nuclear war the US and Soviet Union were; but through the tapes of almost all the meetings of President Kennedy and his advisors shows that JFK was the only sane one of the bunch and single-handedly prevented an escalation that likely would have triggered a nuclear war.The reliance of this author on the tapes of the discussions creates an accuracy that is in sharp contrast to all the Camelot mythmakers like Ted Sorenson who survived JFK and sought to burnish their own reputations and that of Robert Kennedy by peddling falsehoods about their own moral stands and caution during the crisis.Among the authors that Stern's book shows to have been misled is Robert Caro; the most important biographer of Lyndon Johnson. In Caro's recent book; Passage of Power; he repeats the post-hoc stories that are shown to be lies by the Stern book and the Kennedy tapes. On page 221 for example; Caro reports that everyone agreed with Dean Rusk's proposal to resolve the crisis by offering a private trade of Soviet withdrawal of missiles in Cuba in exchange for US removal of missiles in Turkey. Yet the transcripts show that RFK opposed this offer; even after he was forced to make it by his brother. On page 210 Caro portrays RFK as measured; moderate; and someone who was focused on the moral questions at stake. Caro says that RFK was concerned with the moral implications of a strike against Cuba being a Pearl Harbor in reverse. All of this is untrue. RFK (along with Curtis Le May) was the most hawkish of the Presidents advisers; in the beginning; RFK advocated a full scale invasion of Cuba immediately after Joint Chiefs of Staff Maxwell Taylor warned against such an invasion. Even after the President and the majority had agreed on a blockade rather than an invasion or air strike; RFK pressed for an invasion as "the last chance we will have to destroy Castro." RFK carelessly insisted that the Soviet's would not retaliate with nuclear weapons and argued "we should just get into it; and get it over with and take our losses if [Kruschev] wants to get into a war over this...." There is nothing in the tapes of anyone except the President expressly being influenced in choices by civilian casualties. The President acknowledged that the Cuban missiles had no more technical ability to kill Americans than other Soviet missiles placed around the world. RFKs expressed reference to Pearl Harbor was not a moral concern but a concern of how an invasion might be perceived by the rest of the world. Repeatedly; RFK advocated the creation of a false pretext to justify an invasion. In the beginning he advocated using a Berlin crisis as an excuse to invade Cuba. Later; after the embargo had been agreed to; RFK suggested using the Guantanamo base to stage an incident that would be a pretext for invasion; in his words: "You know; sink the Maine again or something.!" As the crisis was close to resolution; RFK lamented: "I'd like to take Cuba back. That would be nice." The central fact that RFK; the President; LBJ and other decision-makers were willing to risk nuclear war and catastrophic civilian losses in efforts to stop the Soviets from protecting their ally Cuba against a US invasion goes unmentioned by Caro. In contrast; the tapes as revealed by Sheldon Stern reveal President Kennedy to be the one exhibiting moral reasoning. The tapes show President Kennedy saying: "It doesn't make any difference if you get blown up by an ICBM flying from the Soviet Union or one that was ninety miles away. Geography doesn't mean that much . . . . After all this is a political struggle as much as military."0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Cuban Missile Crisis by Sheldon SternBy B. KleinThe author has first hand knowledge of what was on the ExCom tapes that was made by President Kennedy. He did a great job of revealing the factual story of what happened between the JCS; the ExCom and others that played a role in the decision making process that took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I found this book to be very informative and gave a clear picture of what really happened during that time as opposed to movies and other documentaries that I have seen. The author also added a part of the book that looked at "what if" things had gone differently; which I found interesting and I'm glad it didn't happen. I was thirteen at that time and if things had gone differently; I probably would not have lived to be fourteen or to write this review. I think the way President Kennedy handled this crisis was an example of his own Profile in Courage. If you are interested in this era in history indulge yourself and read this book.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A must-readBy Susan CWhile this book covers the same territory (the tapes JFK made during the Cuban Missile Crisis) over and over; from different angles (covering the role of each of the most important figures); it is an incredible piece of myth-busting (not the Kennedy myth--he comes off pretty well); and contains some real revelations--straight from the horses' mouths--about what actually took place while we were all loading supplies into our fallout shelters. It really should be read by anyone who has seen the U.S. go through a very public crisis and who thinks he knows how things went.