Defcon-2; Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis

xxiv, [2], 384, [6] pages. Foreword by Tom Clancy. Glossary. Technical Notes. Maps. Illustrations. Appendix A-D. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Inscribed on the half-title page by Polmar. The inscription reads Inscribed for Tom and Scottie Allen--May our grandchildren learn of war only from history books. Love, Norman Polmar. [This is believed to be the Thomas Allen who is the co-author, with Norman Polmar, of World War II, 1941-1945, an encyclopedia of the war; Spy Book, The Encyclopedia of Espionage; Code-name Downfall, the plan to invade Japan; Rickover, Controversy and Genius; and Merchants of Treason, a study of spies of the 1980s, which Tom Clancy said "should be required reading for every security officer in the United States."] Norman Polmar is a prominent author specializing in the naval, aviation, and intelligence areas. He has led major projects for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy, and foreign governments. His professional expertise has served three Secretaries of the U.S. Navy and two Chiefs of Naval Operations. He is credited with 50 published books, including eight previous editions of Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet and four editions of Guide to the Soviet Navy. Polmar writes a column for Proceedings and was editor of the United States and several other sections of the annual publications of Jane's Fighting Ships. In 2019, the Naval Historical Foundation awarded Polmar the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award. Spy-satellite and aerial-reconnaissance photos reveal that one of the United States' bitterest enemies may be acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the means to use them against the American homeland. Administration officials refuse to accept intelligence professionals' interpretation of these images and order an end to spy missions over the offending nation. More than a month later, after vicious infighting, the president orders the spy missions to resume. The new photos reveal an array of ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking deep within U.S. territory. It appears that the missiles will be fully operational within one week. This is the true story of the most terrifying moment in the 45-year Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union: the Cuban Missile Crisis. DEFCON-2 tells this tale as it has never been told before—from both sides, with the help of declassified U.S. and Soviet documents, and interviews with former spies, military figures, and government officials. "DEFCON-2 is the best single volume on the Cuban Missile Crisis published and is an important contribution to the history of the Cold War. Beyond the military and political facts of the crisis, Polmar and Gresham sketch the personalities that created and coped with the crisis. They also show us how close we came to the edge without becoming sensationalistic." --Larry Bond, best-selling author of Dangerous Ground. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Veteran military analysts Polmar and Gresham distinguish their examination of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis from scores of other books on the subject by detailing how military maneuvers undertaken months in advance led to the tense showdown. The book's title, which is also the name of a Discovery Channel documentary based on this volume, comes from the acronym for Defense Condition Two, the Unites States' highest state of military alert short of war. The only time America went to DEFCON-2 during the Cold War was on October 22, 1962, the day that President Kennedy publicly denounced the Soviet Union's construction of missile launching sites in Cuba. The authors, who interviewed Russian, American and Cuban military men who had leading roles in the showdown, provide new logistical information on how the Soviet Union moved a small nuclear arsenal to Cuba. They deftly meld accounts of what happened in the sea and air with descriptions of the political and intelligence o.…