Cruise missiles of past wars have meant the death of the delivery pilot. Recent technology today has replaced the pilot, but we speak very little of the history of how this lethal assault weapon came about, or how it played such an impressive role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Richard F. Kaufman, a chase pilot for the Navy's Regulus missile, recalls the birth and development of the cruise missile in World War II and how it became an American weapon of immense destruction. It came along at a critical time to become our primary weapon in the Pacific.
He shares the experiences of a navy missile chase pilot with mixed emotion. On the one hand, living a life of luxury with his family in a tropical Hawaiian paradise far away from the troubles of the real world, while on the other hand, preparing for his death as a Regulus missile delivery pilot in the event of war.
Join the author as he traces the development of cruise missiles, the role they played in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rigors of the Cold War.
Based on secret transcripts of top-level diplomacy undertaken by the number-two Soviet leader, Anastas Mikoyan, to settle the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, this book rewrites conventional history. The "missiles of October" and "13 days" were only half the story: the nuclear crisis actually stretched well into November 1962 as the Soviets secretly planned to leave behind in Cuba over 100 tactical nuclear weapons, then reversed themselves because of obstreperous behavior by Fidel Castro. The highly-charged negotiations with the Cuban leadership, who bitterly felt sold out by Soviet concessions to the United States, were led by Mikoyan.
Adding personal crisis, Mikoyan's wife of more than 40 years died the day he arrived in Havana, yet he stayed to resolve the crisis through direct talks in Havana, New York, and Washington, amid constant communications with Moscow.
The author, Sergo Mikoyan, who served as his father's personal secretary during these travels, vividly recalls how the Soviet relationship with revolutionary Cuba began and how it was shaped by the crisis.
Cruise missiles of past wars have meant the death of the delivery pilot. Recent technology today has replaced the pilot, but we speak very little of the history of how this lethal assault weapon came about, or how it played such an impressive role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Richard F. Kaufman, a chase pilot for the Navy's Regulus missile, recalls the birth and development of the cruise missile in World War II and how it became an American weapon of immense destruction. It came along at a critical time to become our primary weapon in the Pacific.
He shares the experiences of a navy missile chase pilot with mixed emotion. On the one hand, living a life of luxury with his family in a tropical Hawaiian paradise far away from the troubles of the real world, while on the other hand, preparing for his death as a Regulus missile delivery pilot in the event of war.
Join the author as he traces the development of cruise missiles, the role they played in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the rigors of the Cold War.
