“There isn’t any good solution”: Sorensen, Kennedy, 693.
The Trumans and the shaky chandelier: West, Upstairs at the White House, 96–97.
White House renovation details, including bomb shelter: Klara, Hidden White House, 155–61; Graff, Raven Rock, 28; Associated Press, “White House Piano Puts Hole on Floor,” News-Press (Fort Myers, FL), November 10, 1948.
“We are very, very close to war”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 390.
“We have to wait”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 554.
“We have just submitted to the networks”: Salinger, With Kennedy, 327.
“In Washington they’ve announced”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 554; Taubman, Khrushchev, 560–61.
“Call the members of the Presidium”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 555.
“Khrushchev will not take this”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 151.
“This is going to go very far”: May and Zelikow, Kennedy Tapes, 154.
Kennedy’s meeting with congressional leaders: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 159–74; Fursenko and Naftali, “One Hell of a Gamble,” 244–45.
“We decided that was not the wisest first move”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 380.
“I gotta go and make this speech”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 173.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Oval Office speech scene: Thompson, Missiles of October, 268; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 380.
“Good evening, my fellow citizens”: John F. Kennedy, “Radio and Television Address to the American People on the Soviet Arms Build-Up in Cuba,” October 22, 1962, audio and transcript, JFK Library, jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/address-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis.
Americans watching speech: Thompson, Missiles of October, 269.
DEFCON levels: Sagan, “Nuclear Alerts,” 100.
“If the buzzer blows”: Jones, “Full Retaliatory Response.”
“What have you got?”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 559.
“Let’s stay here until the morning”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 560.
“Well, it looks like war”: James G. Blight, Bruce J. Allyn, and David A. Welch, Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis, and the Soviet Collapse, with David Lewis (New York: Pantheon, 1993), 213, in Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 150.
“The nation has woken up”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 150.
Khrushchev with Presidium: Taubman, Khrushchev, 563.
American public’s response to crisis: Graff, Raven Rock, 140–41; George, Awaiting Armageddon, 67–83.
U.S. detects Soviet subs: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 150; Savranskaya, “Role of Soviet Submarines,” 249.
If Time Permits
Khrushchev’s response to Kennedy: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 565; Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 173–74.
“Okay. Now what do we do tomorrow morning”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 193.
John and Bobby Kennedy’s conversation: May and Zelikow, Kennedy Tapes, 219; Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 204.
“Will there be war?”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 565.
“All of us, men and women”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 75.
“Here lie the Soviet diplomats”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 397.
“So you’ve brought us a lot of potatoes”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 62.
“Low today, 48: high, 4,800”: Saul Pett, “What That Lump in the Throat Is Made Of,” Daily News (New York), October 28, 1962.
“survival crackers”: Graff, Raven Rock, 141.
“Iowa is not ready”: Pett, “Lump in the Throat.”
Civil defense in New York and Chicago: George, Awaiting Armageddon, 72, 77.
“Shelters? There are none”: Oberdorfer, “Survival of the Fewest,” 17.
Strategic Air Command details: Graff, Raven Rock, 138–39.
“Why do you want us to restrain ourselves”: Kaplan, Wizards of Armageddon, 246; Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 94–95.
“This is General Power speaking”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 95; Graff, Raven Rock, 137.
“They’re trying to intimidate us”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 581.
Evacuation details: Salinger, With Kennedy, 52; O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 375; Lincoln, My Twelve Years, 328.
“Is this a joke?”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 400.
“No, they haven’t met the Russian ships”: Pett, “Lump in the Throat.”
Blink
Russians’ sentiments: Jerry Cooke, “We’ll Show the Americans We’re Serious,” Saturday Evening Post, December 8, 1962, 21.
White House Cabinet Room meeting: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 224–30.
Bobby Kennedy recalls tense moments: R. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 54.
“We’re eyeball to eyeball”: Stewart Alsop and Charles Bartlett, “In Time of Crisis,” Saturday Evening Post, December 8, 1962, in Beschloss, Crisis Years, 498.
Korolev’s Mars rocket details: Harford, Korolev, 151.
“It looks like I’m going” and slow messages to Moscow: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 117–18; Reeves, President Kennedy, 420; Dobrynin, In Confidence, 96.
“The Americans have chickened out”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 112.
Khrushchev and Sergei talk about retreat: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 581–82.
Duluth intruder: Sagan, Limits of Safety, 99–100; Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 132–34.
257“Nadezhda Petrovna”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 584.
Knot of War
“I’m getting more concerned”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 284.
“It’s very evil stuff”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 146.
B-130 scene: Savranskaya, “Role of Soviet Submarines,” 243–44.
“They’re asking us, ‘Do you need assistance’”: Huchthausen, October Fury, 217.
“This reads as if he wrote it himself”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 409.
“If indeed war should break out”: Nikita Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962, embassy translation from Russian, in Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 195–98.
Castro meets with Alekseyev: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 628–29; Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 199.
Chuck Maultsby’s flight details: Sherman and Tougias, Above & Beyond, 221–42. Maultsby tells the story in his own words in McIlmoyle and Bromley, Remembering the Dragon Lady, 393–402.
Final Offer
“He’s scared”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 411.
“Premier Khrushchev told President Kennedy”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 231.
Khrushchev’s second letter: Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 207–9.
“It’s very odd, Mr. President”: Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 211.
“We have a problem”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 259.
Okimoto’s directions to Maultsby: Teitel, “Aurora Borealis.”
Maultsby’s recollections of this moment: McIlmoyle and Bromley, Remembering the Dragon Lady, 395.
McNamara and LeMay in the “tank”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 266–67.
“This means war” and Kennedy’s reaction: Reeves, President Kennedy, 416; Sagan, Limits of Safety, 118.
“My bladder was about to burst”: McIlmoyle and Bromley, Remembering the Dragon Lady, 399.
Rudolf Anderson news: May and Zelikow, Kennedy Tapes, 325.
“I just think somebody”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 337.
The scene aboard B-59: Reed, Red November, 150–55; Weir and Boyne, Rising Tide, 102–3, 301–2; Savranskaya, “Role of Soviet Submarines,” 244–46. Many Soviet submariners from this mission are interviewed in the PBS documentary The Man Who Saved the World.
“I will never surface”: Reed, Red November, 152.
Firs
t Shot
“The U-2 was shot down”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 344–45.
“We are in an entirely new ball game”: R. F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 98.
“No! The conditions for firing have not been met” and Savitsky’s response: Reed, Red November, 153.
“It would seem the appropriate time”: Fidel Castro to Comrade Khrushchev, October 27, 1962, in S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 629.
“What?” Khrushchev gasped: S. Khrushchev, “How My Father.”
Kennedy meets with close advisers: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 307.
“assurances against an invasion of Cuba”: President Kennedy to Premier Khrushchev, October 27, 1962, in Chang and Kornbluh, Cuban Missile Crisis, 233–35.
Dobrynin and Bobby Kennedy’s meeting: Dobrynin, In Confidence, 86–88; Fursenko and Naftali. “One Hell of a Gamble,” 281–82; Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 308–9; Hershberg, “Anatomy of a Controversy,” 71–78.
277“How did it go” and “God, Dave”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 394.
Moscow Time
“What’s new?”: S. Khrushchev, “How My Father.”
Novo-Ogaryovo details: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 583.
“The continuation of this threat”: Kennedy to Khrushchev, October 27, 1962.
“We find ourselves face to face”: Taubman, Khrushchev, 574.
Sergei Khrushchev’s phone calls: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 633.
Dobrynin’s telegram arrives: S. Khrushchev, “How My Father.”
“At five o’clock whose time?”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 625.
“Let’s begin, Nadezhda Petrovna”: S. Khrushchev, “How My Father.”
Ilychev’s trip to Radio Moscow: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, xiii–xvii; Lebow and Stein, We All Lost the Cold War, 142.
“Attention, this is Radio Moscow” and Khrushchev’s letter: Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 28, 1962, in S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 633–34.
Well, that’s it: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 634.
“I feel like a new man now”: O’Donnell and Powers, “Johnny,” 395.
“Wasn’t it great about the news”: Lincoln, My Twelve Years, 330.
“This is the greatest defeat”: Stern, Averting ‘the Final Failure,’ 385.
“Fidel, what should we do about this news”: Franqui, Family Portrait with Fidel, 194; Beschloss, Crisis Years, 543.
“I welcome Chairman Khrushchev’s statesmanlike decision”: Reeves, President Kennedy, 424.
“Why don’t we go to the theater?”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 636.
“This is the night I should go to the theater”: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 542.
The call with Penkovsky’s signal: Schecter and Deriabin, Spy, 337.
Rematch
Richard Jacob’s arrest at dead-drop: Schecter and Deriabin, Spy, 339–42.
“This source will be of no further value”: Schecter and Deriabin, Spy, 347.
Seidel’s final tunnel: Galante, Berlin Wall, 193–200; Mitchell, Tunnels, 282–88.
“Be a good boy”: Galante, Berlin Wall, 196.
“Go away! The tunnel is betrayed”: Mitchell, Tunnels, 287.
“Do I look like a spy”: “Obituary: Janet Chisholm,” BBC News, August 12, 2004, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3559020.stm.
“I only remember”: Mitchell, Tunnels, 311.
“Cuba does not want to be a pawn”: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 550.
“It’s a disgrace”: Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight, 328.
“Wait until 1964”: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 557.
“For the first time in history”: Beschloss, Crisis Years, 562.
Epilogue: Choose Your Own Ending
“I plead guilty in all respects”: Schecter and Deriabin, Spy, 355; Mark Frankland, “Penkovsky to Be Shot: Wynne Sentenced to Eight Years,” Observer (London), May 12, 1963.
“the most productive classic clandestine operation”: Schecter and Deriabin, Spy, 353.
“organizing kidnappings, and luring persons to West Berlin”: United Press International, “Berlin Refugee Gets Life for Helping Others Flee,” Boston Globe, December 29, 1962.
“For Seidel, the Reds got a ransom”: Nino Lo Bello,“Bodies for Butter,” Boston Globe, August 21, 1966.
294“Hero or Bum?” and other headlines: F. G. Powers, Operation Overflight, 298, 306.
Powers’s post-CIA life: Francis Gary Powers Jr. covers this extensively in his book, Spy Pilot. He gave me additional details in an interview April 29, 2020.
“Intelligence work is not a series”: “Abel, Red Spy, Dies,” New York Times, November 17, 1971.
Lona Cohen’s life in Britain as Helen Kroger: “Obituary: Helen Kroger,” Times (London), January 13, 1993. Entire books and TV series have covered this, including Carr, Operation Whisper.
Hayhanen TV appearance, details and dialogue: Berkinow, Abel, 249; Fred Danzig, “David Brinkley Talks of Spies and Toys,” Tampa Times, November 9, 1961.
Donovan writes of Hayhanen’s “mysterious” death: J. Donovan, Strangers, 179–80; “Death of Witness in Abel Case Cited,” New York Times, March 31, 1964.
Bay of Pigs prisoner release: Rasenberger, Brilliant Disaster, 371–76; Juanita Greene, “A Wave of Hope Sweeps Exiles in Orange Bowl,” Miami Herald, December 30, 1962.
“Who’d want to kill an old man”: Nicholas Gage, “Mafia Said to Have Slain Rosselli Because of His Senate Testimony,” New York Times, February 25, 1977.
Castro wrap-up: Anthony DePalma, “Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90,” New York Times, November 26, 2016.
“Never trust a government” and Sakharov as activist: Gorelik, “Riddle of the Third Idea”; Francis X. Clines, “Andrei Sakharov, 68, Soviet ‘Conscience,’ Dies,” New York Times, December 15, 1989; “Andrei D. Sakharov,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, atomicheritage.org/profile/andrei-d-sakharov. Sakharov devotes the second half of his Memoirs to his activism.
“Your Highness”: Doran and Bizony, Starman, 137.
“I won’t feel right until I’ve taken”: Doran and Bizony, Starman, 187.
“As you look back”: “After Two Years—a Conversation with the President,” December 17, 1962, television and radio interview with William H. Lawrence, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, January 1 to December 31, 1962, p. 889, in Reeves, President Kennedy, 437.
“Freedom has many difficulties”: John F. Kennedy, “Remarks at the Rudolph Wilde Platz,” Berlin, June 26, 1963, film and transcript, JFK Library, jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/remarks-at-the-rudolph-wilde-platz-berlin; Putnam, “Ich Bin ein Berliner.”
Postcrisis details, including hotline and Limited Test Ban Treaty: Dobrynin, In Confidence, 97–98; R. F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days, 14; Salinger, With Kennedy, 320.
“Why? On what issue”: Taubman, Khrushchev, 5.
“Why are you doing this”: Taubman, Khrushchev, 11–12.
“He’d repeat bitterly that his life was over”: S. Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev, 623.
Nuclear stockpiles: Current totals by country can be found at “World Nuclear Weapon Stockpile,” Ploughshares Fund, ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report.
“This was not only the most dangerous”: Marion Lloyd, “Soviets Close to Using A-Bomb in 1962 Crisis, Forum Is Told,” Boston Globe, October 13, 2002.
“At the end, we lucked out”: Robert McNamara, quoted in the 2003 documentary Fog of War.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books, Magazines, Journals
Abel, Elie. The Missile Crisis. New York: Bantam Books, 1966.
Adamsky, Viktor, and Yuri Smirnov. “Moscow’s Biggest Bomb: The 50-Megaton Test of October 1961.” Cold War International History Project Bulletin 4 (Fall 1994): 3, 19–20.
Albright, Joseph, and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy. New York: Times Books, 1997.
Allain, Rhett. “Why Do Astronauts Float Around in Space?” Wired, July 9, 2011. wired.com/2011/07/why-do-astronauts-float-around-in-space/.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower. Vol. 2, The President. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
Andrew, Christopher, and Vasili Mitrokhin. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
Appelbaum, Yoni. “Yes, Virginia, There Is a NORAD.” Atlantic, December 24, 2015.
Applebaum, Anne. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956. New York: Doubleday, 2012.
Ashley, Clarence. CIA SpyMaster. Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2004.
Bernikow, Louise. Abel. New York: Trident, 1970.
Beschloss, Michael R. Mayday: The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–1963. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
________. Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
Bird, Kai, and Martin Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
Boot, Max. “Operation Mongoose: The Story of America’s Efforts to Overthrow Castro.” Atlantic, January 5, 2018.
Brown, Rob. “The Solomon Islanders Who Saved JFK.” BBC News Magazine, August 6, 2014. bbc.com/news/magazine-28644830.
Brugioni, Dino A. Eyeball to Eyeball: The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Random House, 1990.
Bundy, McGeorge. Danger and Survival: Choices About the Bomb in the First Fifty Years. New York: Random House, 1988.
Burchett, Wilfred, and Anthony Purdy. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space. London: Panther Books, 1961.
Cadbury, Deborah. Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Carlson, Peter. “Nikita Khrushchev Goes to Hollywood.” Smithsonian, July 2009. smithsonianmag.com/history/nikita-khrushchev-goes-to-hollywood-30668979/.
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