Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

In Nuclear Folly, Serhii Plokhy provides a riveting account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, tracing the decision-making and brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro, and their advisors and commanders on the ground. He argues that the Americans and Soviets misread each other due to mutual distrust, second-guesses, and false information, but nuclear disaster was avoided due to fear.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 464 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History


An enthralling account of a pivotal moment in modern history.


Replete with startling revelations about the deception and mutual suspicion that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of Armageddon in October 1962.


Martin Chilton, Independent


The definitive new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize.


For more than four weeks in the autumn of 1962, the world teetered.


The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave.


Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.

In Nuclear Folly, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro, and of their advisors and commanders on the ground.


More often than not, Plokhy argues, the Americans and Soviets simply misread each other, operating under mutual distrust, second-guesses, and false information.


Despite all of this, nuclear disaster was avoided thanks to one very human reason: fear.


Drawing on an impressive array of primary sources, including recently declassified KGB files, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama of those tense days.


Authoritative, fast-paced, and unforgettable, this is the definitive new account of the Cold War's most perilous moment.

Weight: 354g
Dimension: 129 x 196 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780141993287