Stroke of Luck

After the Cold War ended — or Cold War One, as perhaps we should call it — many hawkish historians argued that at no point in the conflict was there ever a real danger of a nuclear war and all the fears of Armageddon were overhyped. The leaders of neither side wanted a hot war and the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) theory had been proved right all along; humanity was rational.

Not quite. Max Hastings’s brilliantly told account of the Cuban missile crisis shows how the word “abyss” is no exaggeration for the drama that unfolded 60 years ago. He concludes his compelling narrative by simply saying: “The world got lucky.”