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  • One Minute to Midnight

  • Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
  • By: Michael Dobbs
  • Narrated by: Bob Walter
  • Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (177 ratings)
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One Minute to Midnight

By: Michael Dobbs
Narrated by: Bob Walter
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Summary

In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle of those near-fatal days, Dobbs reveals some startling new incidents that illustrate how close we came to Armageddon.

Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev’s plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the accidental overflight of the Soviet Union by an American spy plane; the movement of Soviet nuclear warheads around Cuba during the tensest days of the crisis; the activities of CIA agents inside Cuba; and the crash landing of an American F-106 jet with a live nuclear weapon on board.

Dobbs takes us inside the White House and the Kremlin as Kennedy and Khrushchev agonize over the possibility of war. He shows how these two leaders recognized the terrifying realities of the nuclear age while Castro - never swayed by conventional political considerations - demonstrated the messianic ambition of a man selected by history for a unique mission. Dobbs brings us onto the decks of American ships patrolling Cuba; inside sweltering Soviet submarines and missile units as they ready their warheads; and onto the streets of Miami, where anti-Castro exiles plot the dictator’s overthrow. 

©2008 Michael Dobbs (P)2008 Books on Tape
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"One Minute to Midnight is nothing less than a tour de force, a dramatic, nail-biting page-turner that is also an important work of scholarship. Michael Dobbs combines the skills of an experienced investigative journalist, a talented writer, and an intelligent historical analyst. His research is stunning. No other history of the Cuban missile crisis matches this achievement." (Martin Sherwin, co-author of American Prometheus)

"[Dobbs] succeeds brilliantly, marshaling diverse sources to relate an intensely human story of Americans, Russians and Cubans caught up in what the late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. termed 'the most dangerous moment in human history'...[Filled] with memorable characters in extraordinary circumstances and exotic settings...One Minute to Midnight evokes novelists like Alan Furst, John le Carré or Graham Greene." (James G. Hershberg, The Washington Post Book World)

"A book with sobering new information about the world's only superpower nuclear confrontation--as well as contemporary relevance...Filled with insights that will change the views of experts and help inform a new generation." (Richard Holbrooke, The New York Times Book Review

What listeners say about One Minute to Midnight

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Armageddon averted by pure dumb luck?

Would you consider the audio edition of One Minute to Midnight to be better than the print version?

I haven't seen the print version. Audio editions are better for me to absorb, but worse to refer back to. It annoys me when names are wrongly pronounced: that's not a problem for a print edition.

What other book might you compare One Minute to Midnight to, and why?

I think of W S Churchill writing on the Second World War. Both authors are accomplished historians and draw on a vast store of facts, yet offer some fascinating anecdotes amusingly told. Both sum-up brilliantly and produce original, compelling analyses of the causes and results of their historical topic.

What about Bob Walter’s performance did you like?

The narrator pronounces Spanish names and quotations well, but Russian less confidently. His voice is pleasing and avoids sounding monotonous, which would be easy with so much detail to recount.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

In Dobbs's conclusions he quotes Jackie Kennedy writing personally to Nikita Kruschev after JFK's assassination: "You and he were adversaries, but you were allied in the determination that the world should not be blown up. The danger that troubled my husband was that the war might be started not so much by the big men as by the little ones." Apart from being a touching admission to a national enemy by a grieving widow, this gets to the heart of the matter. Together with the JFK quote "There's always some son-of-a-bitch that doesn't get the word!" it sums up the book's subject matter and findings.

Any additional comments?

In 1962 the two superpowers juggled with the future of humanity like Laurel and Hardy trying to negotiate a flight of steps with a grand piano. Secretary of State Dean Acheson later claimed nuclear war was averted "by pure dumb luck". But for all their miscalculations and personal failings, let's be grateful it was JFK and NK who led their respective countries and not any of their gung-ho advisors.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Everything an audiobook should be

This audiobook makes absorbing history effortless. Like listening to a quality thriller, it draws you in and makes you feel like an insider to the events while maintaining the integrity of an authoritative piece of research. Highly recommended.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Mr
  • 11-07-14

Dramatic

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

At times, the juxtaposition of accounts from the American and Soviet sides makes this a very dramatic listen.

Any additional comments?

For a story which is already well-known, this is a brilliantly dramatic, enthralling telling of the wider history surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis, combining the American, Cuban and Soviet sides of the tale. Well worth downloading.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Tense and Gripping

A work of history that engages you like a classic cold war thriller - yet it's true. This book shows how a full-scale nuclear exchange could have been triggered by the actions of relatively low level military officers once control passed from the hands of the leaders into those faced with making split second choices under fire. Terrifying given the current situation with north Korea!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent, balanced research and writing.

This is a great re-examination of a .Uchida studied event. in spite of all the research, Dobbs tells the story very well. You never get bored, and even knowing the outcome, you still feel the pressure of the time.

I really enjoyed this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic book and well read

A fascinating, if terrifying, account of how close the world came to the unthinkable. Superbly written, moves at pace and conveys the drama and danger at every step. Highly recommended.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Detailed But Hard To Love

This is a thoroughly detailed book which I'd recommend highly to scholars of the crisis. For others, it may feel hard to breach - its a dry tome and often feels baggy when I assumed it would feel tense. The insights into Kennedy and Khrushchev's inner circles are incredibly researched though it also feels like Cuba's role in the crisis is as a supporting character - I finished this book not knowing much about how the Castros, Che and other key players in the island felt or acted during this period in comparison with their US and USSR counterparts.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Scary times

An enjoyable chronological narrative of 13 days directed at the non-specialist. If you have heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but don't know much about the detail, or were young or not yet born at the time, then you will certainly enjoy it and learn a great deal. As time goes on more and more material is declassified and the book is replete with the latest information at the time of writing, certainly on the US side; I expect there is more yet to be learnt from the Russian perspective.

Whilst packed with detail and fresh insights, like good narrative history it reads aa a thriller and sustains your attention. The events depicted were genuinely serious and scary and the clock has never since got so close to midnight.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thanks Dan

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish with plenty of insight, flowing nicely & not getting bogged down . My first audio book, it was recommended on Dan Carlin podcast.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent look at a interesting event

A well-performed take on a very good book which is both engaging and informative. Definitely would recommend to those interested in the specifics of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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