Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

One Minute To Midnight

Michael Dobbs recreates the 'most dangerous moment in human history' and brings the Cuban missile crisis to a new generation.

Mesmerising stuff ... a riveting hour-by-hour account of one day that could have changed the history of humanity

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean... Excellent

A book with sobering new information . . . as well as contemporary relevance . . . filled with insights that will change the views of experts

Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN

Dobb's hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobb's chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time lag in communication between the two sides

In this compelling - and thrilling - new study by Michael Dobbs, there is much new material that forces us to revise our assumptions about the crisis... This is the first book about the crisis to tell the story of the tactical cruise missiles and the first to contain interviews with Soviet veterans. Dobbs adopts a cinematic style, cross-cutting between locations and time zones, and perfectly judges the acceleration of pace in the second half of the book which concentrates on Black Sunday. Unlike previous writers, Dobbs gives due prominence to the subplots, any one of which might have sparked mass destruction

A relentless and determined researcher, Dobbs visited half a dozen countries including Russia and Cuba, over a two year period in his search for the full truth about the October missile crisis... This author seeks to humanise the story and bring it down to the level of the individual pilot or soldier

Dobbs is a master at telling stories as they unfold and from a variety of perspectives... In a densely packed, fast-paced narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy's ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution

Extraordinary . . . As gripping as any fiction. Dobbs is an impeccable researcher and reporter

A book with sobering new information about the world's only superpower nuclear confrontation - as well as contemporary relevance . . . Filled with insights that will change the views of experts and help inform a new generation

Riveting and highly informative, One Minute to Midnight portrays the intense human drama of mankind on the brink of an unthinkable war

Gripping . . . A significant contribution to our understanding of that perilous autumn

An important work of scholarship . . . Dobbs [is] an experienced investigative journalist, a talented writer and an intelligent historical analyst

Martin Sherman, co-author of American Prometheus

Filled with memorable characters in extraordinary circumstances and exotic settings . . . evokes novelists like Alan Furst, John le Carré or Graham Greene

Michael Dobbs is a reporter for the Washington Post, who devoted much of his journalistic career to covering the collapse of communism. He was the Post's bureau chief in Warsaw (1980-82), Paris (1983-86) and Moscow (1988-1993). He has held fellowships at Harvard and Princeton University and is the author of three books: Down with Big Brother (1996), Madeleine Albright (1999) and Saboteurs (2004). Down with Big Brother was a runner-up for the 1997 PEN award for non-fiction.

October 27, 1962, a day dubbed Black Saturday in the Kennedy White House. The Cuban missile crisis is at its height, and the world is drawing ever closer to nuclear apocalypse. 
 
As the opposing Cold War leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, mobilize their forces to fight a nuclear war on land, sea and air, the world watches in terror. In Bobby Kennedy's words, 'There was a feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.' 
 
In One Minute to Midnight Michael Dobbs brings a fresh perspective to this crucial moment in twentieth-century history. Using a wealth of untapped archival material, he tells both the human and the political story of Black Saturday, taking the reader into the White House, the Kremlin and along the entire Cold War battlefront. 
 
Dobbs's thrilling narrative features a cast of characters - including Soviet veterans never before interviewed by a western writer - with unique stories to tell, witnesses to one of the greatest mobilizations of men and equipment since the Second World War.

Michael Dobbs

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean . . . Excellent

Dobbs' hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobbs' chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time lag in communication between the two sides

Although Dobbs, like other historians, chooses to tell this story through the personalities of the four leaders, he nonetheless accepts that history sometimes follows an internal logic that is bewildering to those caught up in its contradictory currents but makes complete sense from a distance. (5 star review)

FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman – from World War to Cold War

From the bestselling author of One Minute to Midnight, this is the riveting story of the last six months of World War II, when the hopeful Allied situation inspired by the Yalta Conference descended into the open conflict that would lead to the Cold War. 
 
When FDR, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin gathered outside the Crimean city of Yalta in February 1945, they had Hitler's armies on the run, and victory was just a matter of time. Their mission was to forge the decisions that would shape the postwar world, and above all to divide up Europe between Soviet and Western influence. These men had been fighting side by side for nearly four years but the cracks in their alliance were emerging; even before the Second World War ended, another conflict was beginning. 
 
Six Months captures this turning point of the twentieth century, re-creating the steady breakdown in relations between powers. While the Berlin airlift and the Iron Curtain would not arrive for three years, by August 1945 the West and the Soviet Union were firmly on the path to a Cold War. Michael Dobbs brilliantly renders the personalities and geopolitics that drove this descent, illuminating the aims and frustrations of the key leaders. This is a vivid story of power, personalities, and national interests competing at a crucial moment in history.

Michael Dobbs

Praise for Six Months in 1945

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean . . . Excellent

Dobbs' hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobbs' chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time ...

Although Dobbs, like other historians, chooses to tell this story through the personalities of the four leaders, he nonetheless accepts that history sometimes follows an internal logic that is bewildering to those c ...

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean . . . Excellent

Dobbs' hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobbs' chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time ...

Although Dobbs, like other historians, chooses to tell this story through the personalities of the four leaders, he nonetheless accepts that history sometimes follows an internal logic that is bewildering to those c ...

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean . . . Excellent

Dobbs' hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobbs' chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time ...

Although Dobbs, like other historians, chooses to tell this story through the personalities of the four leaders, he nonetheless accepts that history sometimes follows an internal logic that is bewildering to those c ...

Books by Michael Dobbs

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