The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev 1960 – 1963

The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev 1960 – 1963 by Michael Beschloss

I’ve read many books about this period in history including biographies of John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, and this one was by far the best.  It’s quite rare that you come across a book that is as lengthy as this one yet covering only a few years of history. It manages to captivate you and keep you interested throughout the entire volume. I was simply never bored.

When one reads a biography of a leader, such as a president or chairman, it’s crucial that the author cover all of the events of the subject matter’s life, especially during their tenure in office. This can actually be a drawback since, to be blunt, many things that are deemed consequential during a leader’s term really aren’t that interesting.  For me, nothing can be more boring than reading about a U.S. President’s domestic struggles and accomplishments. It’s really quite tedious reading about things such as stagflation, trade unions, and negotiations with various steel companies.  The GOOD stuff, for me anyway, is what happens in the international arena.  This is probably why I enjoyed this book so much. You could make a solid argument that this book was a bio of both of these men during their coinciding years in charge, but only dealing with international matters. The international matters that involved both of them, that is, which seems to be pretty much everything.

Specifically, this volume is about their relationship with each other during arguably the most stressful time during the twentieth century.  These were two very charismatic leaders that found their countries as allies on the winning side of the second world war, yet to say “ally” was a synonym of the word “friend” in this case was a big stretch.  These two countries had polar opposite ideologies and were always looking over their shoulder to make sure the other guy never got the upper hand.

This book highlights The Bay of Pigs, The Vienna Summit, Berlin, The Cuban Missile Crisis, and the various squabbling around nuclear test banning. The author paints a very vivid image of these two leaders, and I never (like some reviewers) came away with the feeling that he painted Kennedy nor Khrushchev as “failures”. These two men were incredibly committed to their respective ideology, so they naturally distrusted each other.  Although the early sixties were filled with such euphemisms as “duck and cover” and “fallout shelters” in the United States, author Michael Beschloss tells us that the USSR was equally as paranoid of the U.S.  Although both leaders felt their respective philosophies were superior, neither had it on their short-term radar to annihilate the other with nuclear war.  Of course, neither of them knew that for sure, so vicious cat and mouse games were played, not only from 1960 – 1963, but for the entire period of The Cold War.

This book has a massive supportive cast in addition to its two primary subjects.  Fortunately, Beschloss  knows just how to handle a complex cast without overwhelming his reader. Often when a key player is introduced (say, an Andrei Gomyko or a Dean Rusk), the author will take a brief 2- or 3-page diversion and give us a brief a history of the individual.  This helps us keep score of who is who and is invaluable if you’re not familiar with these key players that were the movers and the shakers approximately 60 years ago.

We also learn an awful lot about the personalities of Kennedy and Khrushchev, so we feel we know who these two really were in addition to what they did.  On this note, though, a strength of the author is that he never goes off too far on tangents when we learn more about their idiosyncrasies.  Example: It’s been well documented that Kennedy had a weakness for skirts and was shuffling women in the back door of the White House as early as Inauguration Day, and the author does provide brief anecdotes of such escapades, but he doesn’t fall too deep down the rabbit hole of gossip and innuendo.  When such incidents are discussed, it’s mainly done to better help understand the character of the man, and how it may or may not have influenced his decisions at the negotiation table. To understand the motivations of someone, you really do need to do a deep dive into their character.

The highlight of the book for me was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I would guess about 25% or more of this 800+ page book is devoted to this event.  Yes, we dive deep into the meticulous details, but the author knows how to do so without burdening the reader.  In fact, when the crisis “ends” in late 1962, the rest of the book seems a tad of a downer.  It’s a bit like watching a movie where the climax happens, not at the end, yet only 2/3 through the film.  This makes it slightly difficult to read the rest of this book with the same vigor and voracity. This isn’t a criticism of the book, it’s just how the events happen to play out during the time frame.

I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t more Vietnam here.  Yes, we read a bit about the failed regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, but ONLY a bit.  True, Kennedy was assassinated before the bulk of the war occurred, but since the main struggle of his shortened administration was to prevent the expansion of communism, I thought there would be more. Perhaps this is because the author felt that although the subject matter important, maybe it didn’t really tie in directly with the Kennedy/Khrushchev relationship?

My only really criticism was that this book was too sparse when it came to photos and illustrations. A book like this calls for a wealth of such accoutrements.  There were simply too many people, places, and events that could have benefited from a hefty inclusion.  In fact, the “illustration” section has maybe 5 or 6 random pictures that seemly mostly irrelevant to the subject matter.  You have to wonder, “why even bother?”. A minor gripe though.  One really doesn’t read a volume such as this for the pictures. Plus, when reading on an e-reader, Wikipedia is literally only a touch away.

My first book by this author. It looks like he has a catalog of many books of similar structure.  I’ll definitely check out more of his work.