Above and Beyond

A unique and superior history that looks at the Cuban Missile Crisis from two viewpoints. One is, of course, that of Kennedy. But we're shown Kennedy's life-shaping experience as a young commander of PT-109 to help us understand his understanding of war and violence and responsibility for the lives of men under him. The second is that of the pilots of the little known reconnaissance flights of the U-2, which first revealed the presence of Soviet missile sites in Cuba, and were the main 'eyes in the sky' throughout the crisis.

The tension of the crisis is carefully built into the narrative, and should be invaluable to those who are too young to have lived through it. For those of us old enough to remember it... we didn't really appreciate just how close we came to global thermonuclear annihilation. We didn't know about the top secret U-2 flight that accidentally wandered into Russian arctic territory at the height of the crisis. Or what nearly happened on the Soviet submarine that was forced to the surface by US Navy ships. Or about the U-2 that was actually shot down by a SAM over Cuba. For instance, I, for one, was recently a tourist in Havana (thank you, President Obama!), and saw some of the wreckage of that U-2 in the Museum of the Revolution, and thought, "Wow, we never heard about that!"

Excellent history writing. First-class use of primary sources and interviews. Thrilling and tense narrative--even if you think you know how the story ends.