Retreat from the Pricipice

On Sunday morning, October 14, 1962, two United States Air Force majors flew their U-2 spy planes over western Cuba and the San Cristobal area on a scheduled surveillance mission where previous intelligence gathering indicated suspicious activity. The results of that mission set in motion two weeks of events which are now commonly called the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In Retreat from the Precipice, Duke Southard's eighth novel, the familiarity of the dramatic, tension-filled story of President Jo...