The Fourteenth Day: JFK and the Aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Secret White House Tapes
There have been numerous and exhaustive studies of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. They generally concentrate on the 13 days of October that ended with Khrushchev’s decision to withdraw the missiles. Coleman, history professor at the University of Virginia, carries the story several steps further in an engrossing and revealing account. Utilizing recently released White House tapes, he shows that a crisis atmosphere still prevailed within the administration after the apparent acquiescence of the Soviets. Kennedy and his advisors struggled with issues of Soviet compliance with the agreement, the difficulty in coping with a still-belligerent and supposedly dangerous Cuba, and especially with the potential flashpoint of Berlin. Kennedy expressed hopes that the pullback from the brink of war would moderate Soviet behavior in Berlin, provided the U.S. showed similar restraint. Yet, with an election looming, advisors also feared being labeled soft on communism, so strong efforts were made to manage news regarding U.S. approaches to the Soviets. Coleman has provided an excellent analysis of both short- and long-term results of the crisis. --Jay Freeman