The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with Sir Max Hastings (255)

Cold War Conversations

Ian Sanders

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.8 • 758 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is reckoned to be one of the most perilous events in history, when the World faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and Soviet Union. During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation. I speak with Sir Max Hastings whose new history Abyss: The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots and British disarmers. The period is brought to life with eye-witness interviews, archive documents and diaries, White House tape recordings, and top-down analysis. More than purely a focus on the 13 days of the crisis, the book provides context through the Cold War experiences of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev’s Russia, and Kennedy’s America. Among the areas we discuss are how Cuba became a crisis, the failure of intelligence on both sides, and those nail-biting Thirteen Days in which Armageddon beckoned. Buy the book and support the podcast https://amzn.to/3rlPLsM 0:00 Introduction and discussion on the Cuban missile crisis 7:35 Examination of the decision-making approaches during the Cuban Missile Crisis 15:07 Analysis of Jack Kennedy's political considerations and the missile gap myth 25:58 Comparison of Nikita Khrushchev's wisdom and Putin's actions in Ukraine 33:30 Analysis of fear's role in decision-making during the Cuban missile crisis 40:29 Discussion on the portrayal of military leaders in the Cold War 43:05 Exploration of communication failures and the impact of technology during crises 48:08 Cultural context and perspectives of the missile crisis era 52:10 Personal memories and humor in the face of the missile crisis 57:05 Conclusion and details about Max Hastings' book, "Abyss" Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Episode notes here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode255/ Please leave a review. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a written review. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
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0:33.5	slash setup. Maxwell Taylor, America's senior military man, he says, well, we go to general war, I guess,
0:41.5	if it's in our interests. And the president, audibly disbelieving, he says, what, you mean nuclear
0:46.7	exchange? And Maxwell Taylor says, yeah, I guess you have to.
0:52.4	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen
0:59.1	to first-hand Cold War history accounts. Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or
1:05.2	join our emailing list to keep up with the latest episode.
1:11.8	The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is reckoned to be one of the most perilous events in history,
1:18.6	when the world faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1:25.3	During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation.
1:31.2	I speak with Sir Max Hastings, whose new history tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders,
1:38.3	Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots, and British disarmors. The period is brought to life with eyewitness interviews, archive documents and diaries,
1:49.5	White House tape recordings and top-down analysis.
1:53.6	It's more than purely a focus on the 13 days of the crisis.
1:57.7	The book provides context through the Cold War experience of Fidel Castro's Cuba,
	...

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