The Shadow of War: A Novel of the Cuban Missile Crisis - Hardcoverby Jeff Shaara (Author) From the bestselling author comes the story of rising conflict between the super powers that gripped the world, a global war that almost happened: The Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1961, the new president John F. Kennedy, inherited an ill conceived, poorly executed invasion of Cuba that failed miserably and set in motion the events that put the U. S. and the Soviet Union on a collision course that nearly started a war that would