Pacey saga of nuclear crisis

• Published date: 03 December 2022
• Publication title: Mix, The

Max Hastings

William Collins

Former Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard editor Max Hastings has carved out a new reputation for himself in recent years as a writer of excellent narrative histories of World War 2.

For his latest effort, Hastings has moved slightly closer to the modern day with a perceptive and pacey account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a 12-day stand-off between the United States and Russia which, it is largely agreed, was the closest the world has been to an all-out nuclear war.

The book opens with a welcome scene-setter, placing the principal players on each side of the drama in their historic context and giving a taste of what society was like in the opposing countries as the 1960s opened.

Hastings gives slightly more prominence to then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s role in the crisis than other writers might have done, but this serves as a useful device, giving an outside and dispassionate perspective on what had become a visceral and emotional confrontation.

Russian premier Nikita Khruschev is depicted, convincingly, as a gambler who sent missiles to Cuba without thinking through the consequences.

His US counterpart, John F Kennedy, enters the stage still recovering from the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro is not forgotten, but throughout rather feels...