During the three years of J.F. Kennedy's presidency, the world came to the brink of nuclear disaster. Starting with the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the two superpowers moved from crisis to crisis: the summit in Vienna, confrontation over the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy's assassination and the final overthrow of Khrushchev. This book provides a dramatic reassessment of the years 1960 to 1963. The author examines the politics of the era but returns to the two leaders - Kennedy and Khrushchev - and the effects of their actions. Drawing on interviews and newly declassified government documents, the author reveals the mistakes, betrayals, missed communications and covert operations that made these the "crisis years". Michael Bescloss is the author of "Mayday" a nd "Kennedy and Roosevelt".