RaveThe Observer (UK)Hastings lays bare, with chilling clarity, the ease with which political theatre and bluster could well have escalated into a scenario of mutually assured destruction ... This is in no way to diminish the dangerousness of the Cuban missile crisis. As Hastings shows so well in Abyss, those who have downplayed its importance – with, for example, the line of argument that neither side wanted a nuclear war, so neither would have dared make a first strike – underestimate the level to which \'both sides groped through… under huge misapprehensions\' ... provides chastening lessons on how easily things can spiral out of control but also how catastrophe can be averted.
