Summary of Michael Dobbs' One Minute to Midnight

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The photos showed fields, forests, and winding country roads, and seemed innocuous. But they showed missile trailers, which could carry nuclear warheads, next to a launcher erector.

#2 The Cuban missile crisis began when Kennedy received an initial intelligence briefing. His national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, knocked on the door of his bedroom, on the second floor of the White House, shortly after 8 a. m.

#3 When Kennedy learned that the Soviets were building missile bases on Cuba, he was enraged. He had been expecting a friendly visit from Khrushchev, not a hostile one. He decided to act as if nothing was amiss, and showed off his daughter Caroline’s pony Macaroni to the family of a returning astronaut.

#4 The Bay of Pigs was a disaster, and it reinforced Kennedy's impression of Khrushchev as a liar. He decided to step up U-2 reconnaissance of Cuba, and possibly launch an air strike on the missile sites.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822545625

IRB Media

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Insights on Michael Dobbs's One Minute to Midnight

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The photos showed fields, forests, and winding country roads, and seemed innocuous. But they showed missile trailers, which could carry nuclear warheads, next to a launcher erector.

#2

The Cuban missile crisis began when Kennedy received an initial intelligence briefing. His national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, knocked on the door of his bedroom, on the second floor of the White House, shortly after 8 a. m.

#3

When Kennedy learned that the Soviets were building missile bases on Cuba, he was enraged. He had been expecting a friendly visit from Khrushchev, not a hostile one. He decided to act as if nothing was amiss, and showed off his daughter Caroline’s pony Macaroni to the family of a returning astronaut.

#4

The Bay of Pigs was a disaster, and it reinforced Kennedy's impression of Khrushchev as a liar. He decided to step up U-2 reconnaissance of Cuba, and possibly launch an air strike on the missile sites.

#5

The appearance of Soviet missiles in the western hemisphere was not just a political affront, but a personal affront for Bobby as well. He was the emotional member of the family, as rough and intense as his brother was smooth and calm.

#6

Bobby was extremely furious at Khrushchev, and he was also furious with the sluggish American bureaucracy that never did anything about Cuba. He took a personal interest in the anti-Castro campaign, and even invited anti-Castro activists to his house.

#7

The Kennedy brothers had a dashing Air Force brigadier general named Edward Lansdale, who had made his reputation in Southeast Asia, help them implement their will in Cuba. He had served as an American military adviser in South Vietnam.

#8

Lansdale had very few assets in Cuba itself. He had no control over the American bureaucracy, which was divided into autonomous fiefdoms. The CIA was contemptuous of his ideas, and found it difficult to understand the almost mystical hold he seemed to have over the Kennedys.

#9

Operation Mongoose was a failed attempt at overthrowing Castro. It was a combination of aggressive, noisy, and ineffective actions. It was clear to anyone who paid attention to leaks in the American press and rumors in the Cuban exile community that the Kennedys were out to get Castro.

#10

The missile crisis had brought Kennedy's presidency to a turning point. He had one public appearance that afternoon, a foreign policy conference for newspaper and TV editors at the State Department. The tone of his speech was unusually bleak. The major challenge facing his presidency was how to ensure the survival of the United States without the beginning of the third and perhaps the last war.

#11

The president activated his secret recording system from his place at the center of the Cabinet Room table. Microphones hidden in the wall behind his chair relayed the voices of everyone in the room to reel-to-reel tape machines installed in the basement.

#12

The meeting continued, and the topic of sabotage against Cuba was brought up. The only item that raised a problem for Kennedy was the mining of Cuban harbors, an indiscriminate