The publisher is achieving great success with this fascinating Cold War series and this volume covers the critical period of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets greatly underestimated the resolve of the US and its allies, consequently suffering a humiliating if bloodless defeat – Very Highly Recommended.
NAME: Cold War, The Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days on an Atomic Knife Edge, October 1962 FILE: R2651 AUTHOR: Phil Carradice PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 128 PRICE: £14.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Cold War, nuclear war, Soviet Union, US, NATO, American nuclear deterrent, British nuclear deterrent, CND, Cuba, ballistic missiles, CONUS, naval blockade ISBN: 1-52670-806-X IMAGE: B2651.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/yadbbwbf LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The publisher is achieving great success with this fascinating Cold War series and this volume covers the critical period of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviets greatly underestimated the resolve of the US and its allies, consequently suffering a humiliating if bloodless defeat - Very Highly Recommended. The Soviet Union mistook the Western civil demonstrations against nuclear weapons as proof of a decadent western society that was disintegrating and would blink first. It had been hoped to quietly build missile bases just off the US coast in Cuba without anyone noticing. Once complete, the bases would give the Soviet Union much leverage in blackmail and the opportunity to attempt a first strike war. It was also a reaction to the plans by NATO to establish US missile sites in NATO Member States that bordered the Soviet Union. What the Soviets had not considered was the ability of the new U2 'spy' planes to carry out photo reconnaissance at 70,000 feet beyond the range of any existing air defence systems. It is still not clear how much the Soviets knew about the U2 at the time, but they were certainly aware of flights over the Soviet Union itself and had failed miserably in attempts to shoot down the U2. It has been suggested that they assumed the U2 was a specialist aircraft that would only be used over the Soviet Union until such time as the Soviets could shoot down an example. They were confidant that they would soon have this capability and were unaware that the SR 71 was already being built to replace the U2 in hostile airspace and the US would use satellites. The US had been monitoring Cuba ever since Castro came to power and the first indications of Soviet missile sites being built was soon obtained from U2 flights. What was even more important was that the US responded very quickly, put a naval bl;ockade in place and, with NATO, and British nuclear V Bombers went to full alert. The soviets were stunned by this demonstration and then discovered that they had no effective resources to challenge NATO at sea. The two consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis were that the Soviet Union began building a blue water navy, and that the decline of the Soviet Union had begun. From this point the Soviet Union was sucked into an arms race that it could not afford. The US began to forge ahead in sector by sector, producing a lead in military capability that was significantly ahead of the Soviet Union. To this losing battle, was also added the direct knowledge that the US and NATO would not shrink from global nuclear conflict, no matter what the Soviet-funded CND demonstrators claimed.