The Kennedy Tapes

October 1962: the United States and the Soviet Union stood face to face, cach brandishing enough nuclear weapons to obliterate the other's civilization. For two weeks an executive committee, formed around clements of President Kennedy's National Security Council, debated what to do, twice coming to the brink of attacking Soviet military units in Cuba, units equipped for nuclear retaliation. Through it all, unbeknownst to any of the participants except the President himself and probably his brother Robert, audio tape was rolling, capturing for posterity the deliberations that might have ended the world as we know it. These are the full, authenticated, and annotated transcripts of those riveting recordings, with an Introduction setting the scene of the Cold War and a Conclusion on what we have learned, on Soviet behavior, and on the aftermath. Book jacket.

Ernest R. May is Charles Warren Professor of American History and Director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University Philip D. Zelikow is Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs and White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia