The Repotr On Novell About Cuban Missile Crisis
The book I chose to write my report on was called Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was authored by Robert F. Kennedy himself. The book was released in 1969, which was around a year following his assassination.
The story is told from the perspective of Robert F. Kennedy about his experiences during the Cuban Missile crisis, which provides the reader with a first-hand view on the inner machinations of the conflict between Russia and the U.S. The perspective provided by RFK allows the reader to actually acknowledge how the actions that took place during the Crisis came into existence.
The story begins with RFK joining his brother, John F. Kennedy, at the white house on October 16, 1962 to discuss troubling news, of which was that a U-2 just discovered that Russia may potentially be setting up missiles and atomic weapons in Cuba, but without any true conclusive evidence, they decided just to remain on high alert for the time being.
The story flashes back to September 11, when Moscow attempted to make it very clear that there was no need for them to position weapons in Cuba, so they wouldn’t be doing so. However, on October 16, the Kennedys and the rest of the government representatives there were faced with the reality of the situation when representatives of the CIA explained the obtained photos to them. The fact of the matter was that Russia had lied and was, in fact, placing missiles in Cuba and constructing missile bases at the same time they issued their assurances of non-hostility.
Soon after, the government began discussing the possibility of putting up a blockade around Cuba (after ruling out the possibility of an air strike) as a way to make an agreement, of which would be if they removed their missiles, the U.S. would remove the blockade.
Eventually JFK decides the blockade is going to be the approach the U.S. takes against Russia. He then announced on tv that there would be a need for a “quarantine” of sorts due to the Russian threat. He also brings to attention that the military may need to get involved.
JFK decided to ask Khrushchev to take notice of the situation. The whole ordeal could potentially have caused a third world war, which would not have been good. There is a great deal of tension between the two sides during the next few days.
RFK decided to go meet with the Russian Embassy, or more specifically Ambassador Dobrynin, who expressed concern for the situation, but since he couldn’t necessarily reveal anything, RFK had to leave the Russian embassy and return to the White House empty handed.
Khrushchev, by this point in his life, had been through two wars, so he knew where the conflict would most likely end up at. He informed JFK that as long as he lifts the blockade and agrees to not attack, the missiles could potentially be removed. Whether or not Khrushchev would have kept up his end of the agreement is unknown because that’s not exactly how the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis played out. JFK agreed to this arrangement for the time being.
As tensions rose, the threat of the militaries confronting one another grew exponentially until one day, the U.S. was informed that Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba. The entirety of the United States took a sigh of relief (metaphorically), as a great war had just been narrowly avoided.
The rest of the book consisted of other information, such as the final lesson, which was “the importance of placing ourselves in the other country’s shoes” (that’s a direct quote from the book, not a website). This theme can be seen through the fact that JFK had to keep in mind that Khrushchev was only doing what he thought was best for his country.
The rest of the rest of the book includes an afterword from some of the people involved with the book. The afterword explains some of the facts that the main storyline did not, as well as offer a timeline of the Crisis. There is also a portion of the literature dedicated to legitimate papers and texts that came into existence as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, including speeches the president said to the public and orders he gave.
In conclusion, I honestly found this book to be kind of mediocre in the end. It wasn’t necessarily good, but it wasn’t terribly bad either. It had a great quantity of facts and I liked how it was written by/told from the perspective of RFK himself, but a lot of the information in the book was just absolutely useless to the point that even major history buffs would probably find themselves falling asleep trying to read the book. Also, as a result of the overload of facts and information, it was challenging to follow the actual story of the Crisis. I also was not a fan of how much of the book was dedicated to speeches and texts made by the President and other participating members of the White House.
All in all, when it comes to whether or not I’d recommend this to people, that would depend on the situation. If someone I know has an absolute obsession with the Cuban Missile Crisis, they might like this book. Otherwise, I’d probably tell them to find a different book.
