Last week, I finished reading Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steven Sheinkin. This nonfiction book is about the beginning of the Cold War leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, what happened during the crisis, and how it concluded. It explains how the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the two most powerful nations and began a competition to build the most destructive bombs and achieve milestones in space travel. With the rise of communism in Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people from leaving East Berlin for free West Berlin. While some spies met together to share secrets, others completed overflights across enemy land. Some were even captured. When Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev came to a secret agreement with Fidel Castro to deliver Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba, the series of events afterwards led to the world's closest call to nuclear conflict.
I thought this book was fantastic and learned so much about the Cold War that wasn't covered in my history classes. I really enjoyed how it read like a spy thriller. Even though I knew that the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't end in world destruction, the book was suspenseful and had me wondering how exactly a nuclear war was avoided when President Kennedy was determined not to show weakness by backing down and Premier Khrushchev was bent on threatening the United States by getting nuclear weapons to Cuba. It seems like it was a terrifying time to be alive, especially when any miscommunication at all could have led to the third and final world war. There were heroes then, though, and one of my favorite stories in the book was how cyclist Harry Seidel dug tunnels under the Berlin Wall to bring his family and others from East Berlin to West Berlin. I truly admire how courageous he was. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes books about spies or key moments in history.
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