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Title: MISSILES OF OCTOBER by Robert smith Thompson ISBN: 0-671-87176-5 Publisher: Touchstone Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: The Missiles of Revisionism?
Comment: The trouble with history, particularly modern history, is that events can be interpreted and presented in different ways. Consider, for instance, the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. Some books, such as Jim Bishop's The Day Kennedy Was Shot and Gerald Posner's Case Closed, point the finger at Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone gunman. Others, such as David Lifton's Best Evidence, claim there was a vast conspiracy to shoot Kennedy in Dallas, Texas and to cover this violent coup d'etat up so Lyndon Johnson could be President and escalate the Vietnam War. I don't believe the conspiracy theorists and they'll never get a dime from me, but nevertheless there are plenty of people who do believe Lifton and his other "there was a second gunman in the grassy knoll" compadres. By taking a fact here, adding a supposition there, and by presenting information selectively to make it fit an author's particular slant, any historical event can be revised...even making outrageous claims seem very credible.

Of all the events in President Kennedy's 1,000 day administration (other than the tragedy at Dealey Plaza 40 years ago), perhaps the one that everyone remembers is the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. In most accounts, JFK is taken by surprise when U-2 spy planes photograph Soviet intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM's) being set up on the island of Cuba, only 90 miles away from U.S. shores. Galvanized by this bit of Soviet sleight of hand, the President and his advisers courageously mobilize American forces, improvise a non-invasive strategy of "quarantining" the communist-ruled island and stare down the wily Khruschev and make the Soviet leader decide between removing the missiles or starting a nuclear war.

I admit that I am not a scholar on the Cold War. I am also not an expert on Cuba or even the Kennedy clan. But when I read Robert Smith Thompson's The Missiles of October: The Declassified Story of John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, it soon became apparent that the author is not a fan of JFK. Indeed, Thompson says the familiar accounts of the crisis (as presented in the recent film Thirteen Days and most histories) is a myth.

By cleverly mixing a certain amount of "dirty laundry" related to Kennedy's political career, U.S. foreign policy vis a vis the Soviet Union, the massive political influence of the United Fruit Company in Washington, and even the TFX scandal of the early 1960s, Thompson states that not only did American foreign policy from 1945 on force the Soviet Union to take defensive measures of its own, but that Kennedy (who apparently ran a dirty campaign in 1960 with the assistance of old Joe Kennedy) knew of the Soviet missile buildup far before October 1962. JFK then, Thompson says, used the crisis for domestic political reasons.

Admittedly, Thompson, a professor who teaches foreign policy at the University of South Carolina, is a good prose writer and at times The Missiles of October reads like a technothriller. In the end, though, this book leaves behind a bitter aftertaste with its half-baked conspiracy theories centering on a crisis which could have ended in nuclear war.

Rating: 4
Summary: The Missiles of October Review
Comment: In Robert Smith Thompson's recounting of the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Missiles of October, the
whole story of the tense standoff between the United States, Russia, and Cuba unfolds into a
suspenseful, detailed, yet sometimes confusing story. Although reading the book's jacket cover,
or having some knowledge of world history, lets the reader know how the story ends, The
Missiles of October still reads more like a suspense novel than a non-fiction history book.
Thompson leaves no details out, and makes sure that readers are well informed of all the events
that led up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book starts in 1945, as the United States is dropping
the atomic bomb on Japan, and ends on November 22, 1963, the day JFK is assassinated. The
material in between covers the missile crisis in its entirety, and brings new details to light that the
public was not aware of.
While The Missiles of October is chock-full of information, it sometimes feels as if too
much of it is given. For instance, on page 344, Thompson writes, "On Sunday afternoon,
television viewers watched their beloved Washington Redskins up in Yankee Stadium, receiving a
49 to 34 shellacking at the hands of the New York Giants." Information like this is littered
throughout the book, but it does not really enhance the story, or the reading experience.
Furthermore, at some points, so much information is given that it is not only an annoyance, but
also confusing for the reader. Another problem is that Thompson alludes semi-frequently to the
"TFX Scandal" only to touch on it briefly at the end of the book. Despite these shortcomings,
though, The Missiles of October is a very enjoyable, well researched piece of work.
What will probably strike any reader of this book the most is how close the United States
came to an all out invasion of Cuba, and possibly a nuclear war. Thompson knows this, and
focuses much of the book on that topic. He even contends that the U.S. was within hours of
launching a strike at Cuba at one point. Thompson also shows that President Kennedy's rejection
of advice from many of his trusted advisors is what kept a war from erupting. Thompson is also
aware that many readers may not know some of the history that led up to the Cuban Missile
Crisis, and he goes out of his way to let readers know what happened.
When the book ends, readers will have to seriously reconsider what they thought they
knew about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thompson's writing and overall accounting of the crisis
leads the reader to believe that no one really won the tense standoff; both sides had to make
concessions. The people that Thompson writes about also provide a interesting list of characters,
some of whom may have had a motive in the assassination of JFK. Overall, The Missiles of
October is a good read for anyone with patience and a yearning for a suspenseful, amazing, and
truthful tale of American History.

Rating: 3
Summary: So That's Why they assassinated him.
Comment: With the release of the movie 'Eleven Days' and the holding of Al Queda prisoners at Cuba's Gauntanamo Bay, this story is very timely, despite being 40 years old.

Robert Thompson Smith pieces together the story of how the Cuban missile crisis unfolded and how it became resolved and the resolution may not be the way many of us understand it to be. Thompson Smith uses reports from the time and also official U.S. Government documents released in 1992 to give as true an account as possible about the secretive meetings between politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats. What I found most interesting was the decline of the relationship between the U.S., U.S.S.R and Cuba post WW2, which explains why the crisis developed in the first place. It also gives an excellen history of U.S./Cuban relations.

His writing style is humorous, if at times a little disjointed, and he's not afraid to make quips about a public figure's weight, personality or sexual activity (JFK in particular). It's one of those stories where even though you know what happens in the end you still are held in suspense, a credit to the authors ability to maintain the intrigue. There are comments and interpretations which have to be questioned given that we, nor the author, were there, but on the whole the author keeps an objective view on the situation. The aggressive nature of some of the military heirarchy and their willingness to go to war is astounding. No matter what you may think of Kennedy his ability to resist these advisors is admirable.

The only down side is that he seems to drag the early part of the crisis out, where the reader is keen to get into the nitty gritty we're still in the preliminaries at page 200. As a reader I was running out of steam by the end as there are so many names, places, dates and times it's hard not to be confused.

I will hand it to Thompson Smith as he finishes the story of the crisis with JFK landing in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Without any comment he leaves us with that and given all that was presented before we're left to think there were plenty of people who had motives to take part in Kennedy's assassination.