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1/18/2012 7:32am
Just finished "One Minute To Midnight", a new factual account of the events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
If you like can't-put-em-down thrillers, you will definitely enjoy this. Even if you don't, you should read it anyway.
It'll leave you wondering how the hell it is we're all still here. A whole lot of new information and de-bunking of some of the old myths, too.
If you like can't-put-em-down thrillers, you will definitely enjoy this. Even if you don't, you should read it anyway.
It'll leave you wondering how the hell it is we're all still here. A whole lot of new information and de-bunking of some of the old myths, too.
Most boring thing I have read with way too many cliff notes.
I'll look in to your suggestion because I know there had to be some high drama to the world almost going in to nuclear war.
Made for TV movies never did it justice.
Too many young people have no idea how close we came to that and how the 'Cold war' started or what it even meant to the world.
It's interesting. Scared the hell out of me when you relate it to today's events. Last 100 pages are all references. It has a real economic spin to it so it's not a real page turner, but from an informative standpoint I'm very glad I read it.
Amazon write up -Esteemed historian David McCullough covers the military side of the momentous year of 1776 with characteristic insight and a gripping narrative, adding new scholarship and a fresh perspective to the beginning of the American Revolution. It was a turbulent and confusing time. As British and American politicians struggled to reach a compromise, events on the ground escalated until war was inevitable. McCullough writes vividly about the dismal conditions that troops on both sides had to endure, including an unusually harsh winter, and the role that luck and the whims of the weather played in helping the colonial forces hold off the world's greatest army. He also effectively explores the importance of motivation and troop morale--a tie was as good as a win to the Americans, while anything short of overwhelming victory was disheartening to the British, who expected a swift end to the war. The redcoat retreat from Boston, for example, was particularly humiliating for the British, while the minor American victory at Trenton was magnified despite its limited strategic importance.
Some of the strongest passages in 1776 are the revealing and well-rounded portraits of the Georges on both sides of the Atlantic. King George III, so often portrayed as a bumbling, arrogant fool, is given a more thoughtful treatment by McCullough, who shows that the king considered the colonists to be petulant subjects without legitimate grievances--an attitude that led him to underestimate the will and capabilities of the Americans. At times he seems shocked that war was even necessary. The great Washington lives up to his considerable reputation in these pages, and McCullough relies on private correspondence to balance the man and the myth, revealing how deeply concerned Washington was about the Americans' chances for victory, despite his public optimism. Perhaps more than any other man, he realized how fortunate they were to merely survive the year, and he willingly lays the responsibility for their good fortune in the hands of God rather than his own. Enthralling and superbly written, 1776 is the work of a master historian.
There are at least a half-dozen other skin of your teeth, pure luck, things that were avoided that I heard for the first time reading that book. Not to mention the clash of personalities in the cabinet. It's really, really intense.
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Scary stuff for sure.
Whip there is also a good book written on the Soviet sub service you may enjoy also, sorry I cannot remember the title right now.
They would go to battles stations and prepare to launch several times every cruise and the code would tell them it was a drill or that they would need to launch.
He said it was pretty scary not knowing if they were actually at war or not. The sub carried 14 missiles (Polaris) and the Captain had told him once that they would be lucky to get off three before the Russians figured out where they were and took them out.
Loks like Tucker Max has turned it into a screen play... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220628/
That's what makes this a can't-put-it-down book.
I remember one piece of the movie, where Kevin Costner (who I think played JFKs Chief of Staff) asks Bobby Kennedy, "What if they launch the missles? What will they do about our families?" Kennedy says, "We'll all be taken to a secure underground control center and our famiies will meet us there. Of course, that's just a plan that exists for morale purposes. It only takes 15 minutes for the missles to get here."
I lived through it in Texas as well as a little squirt. I remember everyone being scared to death and vendors selling "bomb shelters" from makeshift 'stores' in the parking lot of the shopping center.
The book debunks some of the 'myths' of the movie. But it does have the same passage about that conversation.
This guy is twisted to write this kind of stuff.
I like both of them.
I got burned out on King when he was putting out books faster than I could read them.
I'm only in to book two of Odd Thomas. So far, it is entertaining. You follow a certain character who has some pyscho - paranormal abilities and he is just trying to be a normal guy but keeps getting roped in to answering to ghosts of people who were killed by bad folks.
So far it is a good guy story and is good reading.
Would recommend.
Don't remember reading "The Good guy".
Will check it out.
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