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Don Munton and David Welch, The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History (Oxford University Press, 2012) pb 144pp, ISBN: 9780199795703
Reviewed by James Wilkey
As its title suggests, this book sets out to deliver a broad-stroke depiction of the pivotal Cold War event that is 'concise, accurate and up-to-date' (p. 2) and makes use of the plethora of primary source material that has emerged from all sides of the conflict in the past 50 years. In their introduction, authors Don Munton and David Welch admit that 'library shelves groan under the weight of lengthy books examining [the Cuban Missile Crisis] from every possible angle' (p. 2), but the authors don't aim to usurp this extensive body of literature. Instead, their goal is to create a new gateway into Cuban Missile Crisis scholarship. One that is a proper history, intended to replace what they posit as the more common introductions of Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Robert F. Kennedy, and the film Thirteen Days starring Kevin Costner. In this regard, the book is a tremendous success.
The authors skilfully manoeuvre through the Soviet decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, to the American discovery of, and reaction to those missiles, and the ultimate negotiations that brought the crisis to an end. Munton and Welch accomplish this at a brisk pace, yet...