Includes bibliographical references and index.

In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Journalist Michael Dobbs has used previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle, he takes us onto the decks of American ships patrolling Cuba; inside sweltering Soviet submarines and missile units as they ready their warheads; and inside the White House and the Kremlin as Kennedy and Khrushchev -- rational, intelligent men separated by an ocean of ideological suspicion -- agonize over the possibility of war. In Bobby Kennedy's words, 'There was a feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.' Dobbs shows how these two leaders recognized the terrifying realities of the nuclear age while Castro -- never swayed by conventional political considerations -- demonstrated the messianic ambition of a man selected by history for a unique mission.

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