The 5 Best Books about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Aerial Reconnaissance over Cuba

by Francis Gary Powers, Jr.
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5 books
Both my parents worked for the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. On May 1, 1960 my father was shot down over the Soviet Union while on a CIA U-2 spy flight and spent nearly 2 years in a Soviet prison before being exchanged for Soviet KGB Spy Colonel Rudolph Abel in 1962 as recently depicted in Steven Spielberg’s Cold War thriller, “Bridge of Spies.” As a result of growing up in this family, I have always been interested in espionage and the Cold War. In 1996, I founded The Cold War Museum to honor Cold War veterans, preserve Cold War history, and educate future generations about this time period. These five books about the Cuban Missile Crisis that I selected document the importance of photographic reconnaissance taken by U-2s and RF-8A Crusaders during the Crisis and provides the reader a great overview of the Crisis from some of the most renowned Cold War experts alive today.
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Eyeball to Eyeball

Dino A. Brugioni, 1995
This book was written by one of the leading photographic interpreters of the Cold War. He worked directly under Art Lundahl at the National Photographic Interpretive Center (NPIC) in preparing and briefing President Kennedy on the high-altitude U-2 and low-level RF-8A Crusaders photoreconnaissance imagery that confirmed Soviet missiles in Cuba. Dino Brugioni was a family friend and a mentor to me as a young adult. He personally escorted me through the CIA headquarters in 1977 when I was 12 years old, shortly after my father’s death earlier that year. When I founded The Cold War Museum in 1996, Dino agreed to serve as an Advisory Board Member. Dino is a great writer and researcher. This book really helps the reader to learn about the importance of photographic reconnaissance, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how close we came to nuclear war with the Soviet Union

One Minute to Midnight

Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
Michael Dobbs, 2009
Back in October 2012, I organized the 50th anniversary conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis for The Cold War Museum and George Mason University. Michael Dobbs was one of the panelists, along with Sergei Khrushchev and Dino Brugioni. It was great to hear Michael Dobbs talk about his book and the research he did to bring this history alive. It was an honor and privilege to join him again in October 2022 as a co-panelist for the DIA’s 60th anniversary conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a result of his research, this book was named one of five non-fiction books of the year by The Washington Post and is an hour-by-hour account of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

DEFCON-2

Standing on the Brink of Nuclear War During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Norman Polmar, 2006
Norman Polmar and I have been colleagues and friends for over 20 years. Not only have we served together on several Cold War history panels, including the DIA’s 60th-anniversary conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis in 2022, but we also co-authored the Epilog for my father’s book, “Operation Overflight,” when it was republished in 2004. Polmar’s book is an in-depth study of the personalities that orchestrated the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even the title, DEFCON-2, emphasizes precisely how close we came to the launching an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union in October 1962.

Blue Moon over Cuba

Aerial Reconnaissance during the Cuban Missile Crisis
William B Ecker USN (ret.), Kenneth V. Jack, Michael Dobbs, 2013
Kenneth Jack and I first met in July 2012 when I was in the process of organizing the 50th Anniversary Conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis for The Cold War Museum and George Mason University. As a result of his interest in preserving a firsthand account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was able to get Captain Ecker’s memoir published in 2012 (3 years after Captain Ecker’s death) just in time for the 50th anniversary of the crisis. Captain Ecker was the commanding officer of the US Navy Light Photographic Squadron (VFP-62) during the Crisis. Under heavy enemy fire, he and his fellow pilots flew numerous low-level photo reconnaissance missions over Cuba in their RF-8A Crusaders. As a result of these flights over the missile launch sites in Cuba and high-altitude photos taken by the U-2, President Kennedy was able to show the world irrefutable proof that the Soviets were placing medium and intermediate-range nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cuba. According to Michael Dobbs, who wrote the forward for this book, it “tells the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the vantage point of the pilots who risked their lives to bring back the intelligence required by Kennedy for each stage of his high-stakes poker game with Khrushchev.

Count Down to Thirteen Days and Beyond

Banner Digital Printing and Publishing, Incorporated, H. Wayne Whitten, 2013
I first met Colonel Whitten in October 2012 when he attended the Cuban Missile Crisis 50th Anniversary conference that I organized for The Cold War Museum and George Mason University. His book is a nonfiction narrative about the Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron 2 (VMCJ-2) that flew low-level photographic reconnaissance flights over Cuba before, during, and after the Crisis in their F8U-1P (RF-8A) Crusaders. As a result of these missions, the VMCJ-2 squadron was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for the period September 1, 1960 – December 1, 1962. According to USMC Brigadier General William A. Bloomer (ret) who wrote the forward, this book not only gives an account of the Marine Corp’s role in the Crisis but also “recounts Castro’s rise to power, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and his build up in military capabilities courtesy of the Soviet Union.