Michael Dobbs > Quotes

“The most enduring lesson of the Cuban missile crisis is that, in a world with nuclear weapons, a classic military victory is an illusion. Communism was not defeated militarily; it was defeated economically, culturally, and ideologically. Khrushchev’s successors were unable to provide their own people with a basic level of material prosperity and spiritual fulfillment. They lost the war of ideas. In the end, as I have argued in Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“Communism was not defeated by any one individual or even a combination of individuals. In the last resort communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, Maha suur vend

“The closest contact they had with the enemy was a playful sign that boasted: “Worldwide delivery in 30 minutes or less—or your next one is free.” Nuclear apocalypse was as mundane as delivering pizza.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“The captain of the Lowry tried a new approach. He assembled the destroyer’s jazz band on deck, and told them to play some music. Strains of Yankee Doodle floated across the ocean, followed by a boogie-woogie number. The Americans thought they could see a smile on the face of one of the sailors. They asked if there was any particular tune he would like to hear. The Soviet sailor did not respond. The”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“Bismarck defined political intuition as the ability to hear, before anybody else, “the distant hoofbeats of history.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“The issue was not whether Kennedy and Khrushchev wanted to control events; it was whether they could.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute To Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War

“The real problem, he thought, was “psychological” and “political” rather than “military.” To do nothing would be to surrender to blackmail. In the Cold War game of nuclear brinkmanship, perception shaped reality.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“Nuclear apocalypse was as mundane as delivering pizza.”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“the time. You can’t let him out.” After many years of observing Nixon, Haldeman had concluded that his boss was “the strangest man I ever met.”
― Michael Dobbs, King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy

“Nixon was learning what the Greeks had already known: “that the worst punishment can be having one’s wishes fulfilled too completely.”
― Michael Dobbs, King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy

“He was at once his enforcer, his nanny, and his therapist.”
― Michael Dobbs, King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy

“Khrushchev had been ready to settle for a”
― Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight

“During their entire sixteen years together, Nixon had never treated Haldeman as a friend, only as an employee. There had been only one family dinner together with their wives, back in 1962.”
― Michael Dobbs, King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy