The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal

291 Pages·2015·0.873 MB·English

by  Len Scott, R. Gerald Hughes

The Cuban Missile Crisis
This volume brings together a collection of leading international experts
to revisit and review our understanding of the Cuban missile crisis, via a
critical reappraisal of some of the key texts.
In October 1962, humankind came close to the end of its history. The
risk of catastrophe is now recognised by many to have been greater than
realised by protagonists at the time or scholars subsequently. The Cuban
missile crisis remains one of the mostly intensely studied moments of
world history. Understanding is framed and informed by Cold War histori-
ography, political science and personal experience, written by scholars,
journalists and surviving officials. The emergence of Soviet (later Russian)
and other national narratives has broadened the scope of enquiry, while
scrutiny of the operational, especially military, dimensions has challenged
assumptions about the risk of nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis: A critical reappraisal brings together leading
world scholars from the US, the UK, France, Canada, and Russia to
present critical scrutiny of authoritative accounts and to recast assump-
tions and interpretations. The book aims to provide an essential guide for
students of the missile crisis, the diplomacy of the Cold War and the
dynamics of historical interpretation and reinterpretation. Offering ori-
ginal ideas and agendas, the contributors seek to provide a new under-
standing of the secrets and mysteries of the moment when the world went
to the brink of Armageddon.
This book will be of great interest to students of the Cuban missile
crisis, Cold War Studies, nuclear proliferation, international history and
International Relations in general.
Len Scott is Professor of International History and Intelligence Studies at
Aberystwyth University.
R. Gerald Hughes is Director of the Centre for Intelligence and Inter-
national Security Studies (CIISS) at Aberystwyth University.
Series: Cold War History
Series Editors: Odd Arne Westad and Michael Cox
In the new history of the Cold War that has been forming since 1989,
many of the established truths about the international conflict that shaped
the latter half of the twentieth century have come up for revision. The
present series is an attempt to make available interpretations and mater-
ials that will help further the development of this new history, and it will
concentrate in particular on publishing expositions of key historical issues
and critical surveys of newly available sources.
Reviewing the Cold War Reinterpreting the End of the
Approaches, interpretations, Cold War
theory Issues, interpretations,
Edited by Odd Arne Westad periodizations
Edited by Silvio Pons and
Rethinking Theory and History in Federico Romero
the Cold War
The State, military power and social
Across the Blocs
revolution
Cold War cultural and social
Richard Saull
history
Edited by Rana Mitter and
British and American
Patrick Major
Anticommunism before the Cold
War
US Internal Security Assistance to
Marrku Ruotsila
South Vietnam
Insurgency, subversion and public
Europe, Cold War and Coexistence,
order
1953–1965
William Rosenau
Edited by Wilfried Loth
The Last Decade of the Cold The European Community and
War the Crises of the 1960s
From conflict escalation to Negotiating the Gaullist
conflict transformation challenge
Edited by Olav Njølstad N. Piers Ludlow
Soviet–Vietnam Relations and the The Cold War in the Middle East
Role of China, 1949–64 Regional conflict and the
Changing alliances superpowers 1967–73
Mari Olsen Edited by Nigel J. Ashton
The Third Indochina War The Making of Détente
Conflict between China, Vietnam Eastern and Western Europe in the
and Cambodia, 1972–79 Cold War, 1965–75
Edited by Odd Arne Westad and Edited by Wilfried Loth and
Sophie Quinn- Judge Georges- Henri Soutou
Greece and the Cold War Europe and the End of the Cold
Frontline state, 1952–1967 War
Evanthis Hatzivassiliou A reappraisal
Edited by Frédéric Bozo,
Economic Statecraft during the
Marie- Pierre Rey, N. Piers Ludlow,
Cold War
and Leopoldo Nuti
European responses to the US
trade embargo
The Baltic Question during the
Frank Cain
Cold War
Edited by John Hiden, Vahur Made
Macmillan, Khrushchev and the
and David J. Smith
Berlin Crisis, 1958–1960
Kitty Newman
The Crisis of Détente in Europe
From Helsinki to Gorbachev,
The Emergence of Détente in
1975–85
Europe
Edited by Leopoldo Nuti
Brandt, Kennedy and the formation
of Ostpolitik
Cold War in Southern Africa
Arne Hofmann
White power, black liberation
Edited by Sue Onslow
European Integration and the Cold
War
Ostpolitik–Westpolitik, 1965–1973 The Globalisation of the Cold
Edited by N. Piers Ludlow War
Diplomacy and local
Britain, Germany and the Cold War confrontation, 1975–85
The search for a European Détente Edited by Max Guderzo and
1949–1967 Bruna Bagnato
R. Gerald Hughes
Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in
The Military Balance in the Cold the Early Cold War
War Reconciliation, comradeship,
US perceptions and policy, 1976–85 confrontation, 1953–1957
David M. Walsh Svetozar Rajak
The End of the Cold War in the Human Rights in Europe during
Third World the Cold War
New perspectives on regional Edited by Kjersti Brathagen,
conflict Rasmus Mariager and Karl Molin
Edited by Artemy Kalinovsky and
Sergey Radchenko NATO and Western Perceptions of
the Soviet Bloc
Mao, Stalin and the Korean War Alliance analysis and reporting,
Trilateral communist relations in 1951–69
the 1950s Evanthis Hatzivassiliou
Shen Zhihua; translated by Neil Silver
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Iran–Iraq War A critical reappraisal
New international perspectives Edited by Len Scott and
Edited by Nigel Ashton and R. Gerald Hughes
Bryan R. Gibson
International Summitry and Global
Governance
The rise of the G7 and the
European Council, 1974–1991
Edited by Emmanuel Mourlon- Druol
and Federico Romero
The Cuban Missile Crisis
A critical reappraisal
Edited by Len Scott and
R. Gerald Hughes
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 selection and editorial matter, Len Scott and R. Gerald
Hughes; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Len Scott and R. Gerald Hughes to be identified as the
authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Cuban missile crisis : a critical reappraisal / edited by Len Scott
and R. Gerald Hughes.
pages cm. – (Cold war history)
1. Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. 2. Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962–
Historiography. 3. Nuclear crisis stability. 4. Cold War.
I. Scott, L. V. (Leonard Victor), 1957–, editor. II. Hughes,
R. Gerald, editor.
E841.C8447 2015
972.9106'4–dc23 2014039828
ISBN: 978-1-138-84092-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73258-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To Lucy, James and Frances
For Owen and in memory of Dave Barnes and Dave Martyn
(cid:84)(cid:104)(cid:105)(cid:115)(cid:32)(cid:112)(cid:97)(cid:103)(cid:101)(cid:32)(cid:105)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:101)(cid:110)(cid:116)(cid:105)(cid:111)(cid:110)(cid:97)(cid:108)(cid:108)(cid:121)(cid:32)(cid:108)(cid:101)(cid:102)(cid:116)(cid:32)(cid:98)(cid:97)(cid:110)(cid:107)
Contents
Notes on contributors xi
Foreword xiv
Acknowledgements xvi
List of abbreviations xvii
1 The Cuban missile crisis: what can we know, why did it
start, and how did it end? 1
ROBERT JERVIS
2 Examining The Fourteenth Day: studying the neglected
aftermath period of the October Cuban missile crisis, and
underscoring missed analytical opportunities 40
BARTON J. BERNSTEIN
3 Prime Minister and President: Harold Macmillan’s
accounts of the Cuban missile crisis 75
PETER CATTERALL
4 Reform or revolution? Scott Sagan’s Limits of Safety and its
contemporary implications 102
CAMPBELL CRAIG
5 ‘The best and the brightest’: the Cuban missile crisis, the
Kennedy administration and the lessons of history 117
R. GERALD HUGHES
6 The three puzzles: Essence of Decision and the missile crisis 142
DON MUNTON