Over 40 years have passed since the tense hours in October 1962 when the world nearly saw the eruption of nuclear conflict between the United States and the USSR—and in a location never anticipated by cold war paradigm architect George Kennan in his famous “Mr. X” article of 1947. Tomás Diez Acosta, a soldier 16 years old at the time of that crisis, enjoyed a long career as a political education officer within the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba and culminated his work as director of the Department of Military History within the Institute of Cuban History.
Diez Acosta’s book is worthwhile reading for Latin Americanist scholars in the United States. He opens with a well-documented section on the international antecedents to the Missile Crisis: the “dirty tricks” program that encouraged pro- Batista terrorists to detonate dams and bridges, pushed religious figures to denounce Fidel Castro, and sent diplomatic blitzes...
