The Cuban Missile Crisis A Concise History

by Munton, Don; Welch, David A.

• ISBN13: 9780195178609
• ISBN10: 0195178602
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History, Don Munton and David A. Welch distill the best current scholarship on the Cuban missile crisis into a brief narrative history. The authors draw on newly available documents to provide a comprehensive treatment of its causes, events, consequences, and significance. Stressing the importance of context in relation to the genesis, conduct, and resolution of the crisis, Munton and Welch examine it from the U.S., Soviet, and Cuban angles, revealing the vital role differences in national perspectives played at every stage. While the book provides a concise, up-to-date look at this pivotal event, it also notes gaps and mysteries in the historical record and highlights important persistent interpretive disputes. The authors provide a detailed guide to the literature and film for those who wish to explore further. The Cuban Missile Crisis is ideal for undergraduate courses on the 1960s, U.S. foreign policy, the Cold War, twentieth-century world history, and comparative foreign policy.

Author Biography

Don Munton is Professor and Chair of International Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia David A. Welch is Professor of Political Science and George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Acronyms	xi
Dramatis Personae (and Positions in October 1962)	xiii
Introduction: The REAL Thirteen Days?	1	(6)
Chapter 1 Background to the Crisis	7	(25)
US-Cuban Relations in Historical Perspective	9	(7)
The Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongoose	16	(4)
The Soviet Decision to Deploy	20	(12)
Chapter 2 Deployment and Discovery	32	(16)
Details of the Deployment	33	(7)
The Intelligence Game of Cat and Mouse	40	(2)
Warnings too Late	42	(4)
On the Eve of Crisis	46	(2)
Chapter 3 From Discovery to Blockade	48	(13)
The Storm Before the Calm	50	(4)
Narrowing the Options	54	(3)
Decision: The Calm Before the Storm	57	(4)
Chapter 4 The Perfect Storm	61	(23)
The Speech	62	(4)
Carrots and Sticks	66	(6)
Khrushchev and Kennedy Waver	72	(1)
The Crisis Heats Up	73	(6)
The Dobrynin Meeting	79	(1)
Climax and Resolution	80	(4)
Chapter 5 Aftermath	84	(12)
Removing the Missiles from Cuba	84	(4)
The Cuban Bomber Crisis	88	(5)
The Domestic and International Public Reaction	93	(1)
Steps Toward Détente: The Hot Line and Test Ban	94	(2)
Conclusion	96	(8)
Bibliographic Essay	104	(9)
Early Treatments of the Crisis	104	(1)
The Second Wave: "Critical Oral History"	105	(1)
Recent Accounts	106	(1)
Background and History	107	(2)
Aftermath	109	(1)
Document Collections and Websites	109	(1)
Film	110	(3)
Index	113