Davis R. Gibson (2012), Talk at the Brink: Deliberation and Decision during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Princton: Princton University Press

Abstract

Readers should not expect revelations from Gibson’s short book; the Cuban missile crisis has been examined and re-examined from every angle, almost since its inception. This does not mean that Talk at the Brink has nothing to offer. By using the concept of talk to examine the Cuban missile crisis from a new angle, it provides a very original look at how decisions were made by the American administration — one which adds another narrative perspective to the many ways in which this story has been told in the past. To put it in more scholarly language, Gibson constructs a new theoretical framework and reaches an intriguing conclusion: even when people in a group are free to discuss an issue widely, they do so in a restricted way; even more strangely, this restricted talk has positive outcomes.