October Fury

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the defining moment of the Cold War ? the power struggle between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. that was to dominate world politics during the latter half of the 20th century. The story of President Kennedy?s ultimatum to the Soviets to remove their missiles from Cuba and the tense days that followed, during which the United States and Soviet Union came perilously close to nuclear war, has become legend. Yet, one aspect of that drama ? the naval confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet submarines off the coast of Cuba, in October of 1962 ? has received scant attention in the popular literature. Written by a naval officer who was there, October Fury vividly recreates that fateful encounter, from both the American and Russian points of view. Based on recently declassified Soviet naval records and interviews conducted with his Russian counterparts, Peter Huchthausen recounts in harrowing detail the dramatic events andreveals for the first time just how close we came to nuclear war at sea.

CAPTAIN PETER A. HUCHTHAUSEN, U.S. Navy (Retired), served as Electronics Materials Officer and a watch officer aboard the USS Blandy when it took part in the blockade of Cuba in 1962, mere months after his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy. In a distinguished career, Captain Huchthausen served as a Soviet naval analyst and as a naval attaché in Yugoslavia, Romania, and Moscow, where he met Russian submariners who had been involved in the Cuban encounter at sea. He is now a consultant and writer living in Maine.