European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A eyeball focuses sharply on cuban missile crisis by Christopher Lehmann Haupt n y. Times Dino a. Brugioni the author of eyeball to eyeball the inside Story of the cuban missile crisis random Houseman engrossing history of the cuban missile crisis was an american senior intelligence officer during the showdown with the soviet Union that brought the world close to nuclear War in october 1962. As a member of the National photographic interpretation Center he supervised the preparation of All Aerial reconnaissance photography and briefing notes for the Cia. So although Brugioni literally had a Birds Eye View of events a Reader might wonder How qualified he is to Tell the full Story of the crisis. As it turns out one does no to have to worry. Brugioni has spent the last 10 years on the present project talking with Many who were involved and familiarizing himself with events Large and Small. He also happens to be a civil War Buff who has written several articles and a Book dealing with the War in the West. Eyeball to eyeball then is far from a parochial account of the crisis. It encompasses the full spectrum of events from what was happening on the International scene to what was being said in the Oval office. It offers fresh and Lively details including Many that reveal the personalities of those who managed the crisis. It brings news not widely known heretofore including that contrary to statements by responsible . Officials during the period and articles written after the crisis nuclear warheads were seen in Cuba at the time. Quot the fact was they weren to discovered until the pos crisis review of Aerial reconnaissance photography taken during the crisis period a Brugioni writes but they were finally determined to have been stored in vans parked at the port of Mariel Airport just West of Havana. And it places the Reader at the Center of the action re creating and sustaining a degree of tension one would have thought impossible to capture. Still the Best and most original aspect of eyeball to eyeball is the history it offers of Aerial reconnaissance and the development of modern High Altitude photography. This Field May be the authors Hobby horse but he succeeds in convincing one that the development of the a it Cheed u-2 was what enabled the United states to prevail in the crisis. The work of these ungainly and fragile aircraft was what established the presence of soviet missiles in Cuba in the first place. It proved they were being assembled while the russians were still denying their existence and allowed us to inspect their removal when no other Means of follow up could be agreed on. Brugioni s history is not entirely free of flaws. An Early chapter on the soviet buildup in Cuba is extremely tedious perhaps because it is an unfortunate tendency of Complex International history to move at a much slower Pace than dramatic storytelling demands. Then too. The author has a compulsion common to certain history buffs to get it All Down on the Page regardless of whether it cohere so that a Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna Austria in 1961, the year before their showdown. The passages on troop movements for instance slow Down and pile up like so Many logs in a Jam. Still eyeball to eyeball admirably re creates unbearably tension filled Days. If anything it makes them seem even More desperate. What one remembers was president Kennedy a speech on oct. 22 announcing the presence of the missiles and the imposition of the naval quarantine then a period of waiting then the news that soviet ships headed for Cuba had turned Back then More awful waiting and finally the announcement of Premier Nikita s. Khrushchev a apparent capitulation. What actually went on As Brugioni reminds us was All sorts of developments that made things seem progressively worse. A this Book even makes one grateful in a Way for having been relatively ignorant at the time. Was the whole trauma really necessary after All As a number of people argued including Adlai e. Stevenson the United states ambassador to the United nations by placing offensive missiles in Cuba some with a Range of up to 2,000 Miles the soviet Union was Only trying to even things up Given the number of american missiles close to its Borders. In retrospect at least it seems unlikely that the soviets planned to fire them off first. In the Cru dest sense of the word the missiles May have been As defensive As soviet officials claimed. Brugioni a account reminds us what an outrageously bold and destabilizing Gamble Khrushchev a deployment of the missiles seemed at the time. Many of Kennedy a advisers not least among them the members of the joint chiefs of staff were in favor of immediate military action in the form of bombing raids and even the invasion of Cuba. The imposition of a naval blockade or quarantine seems a relatively benign response in context. The Point that this history brings so compellingly to life is that the Kennedy administration Felt it had no Choice but to take Strong action. So certain of that was the president Brugioni reports that he believed that his failure to remove the missiles would have led to nothing less than his impeachment. Whether this makes sense in retrospect eyeball to eyeball shows the Force of its logic at the time. So a Book that begins As a Birds Eye View of events ends up diving to the heart of the times. Uncovering dark memories in a sins of the father by Robert Draper los Angeles times he Story of Eileen Franklin and her murderous sexually abusive father has the Quality of a Nightmare and indeed it revealed itself to her in the form of a daydream. While staring into the face of her Young daughter Jessica one afternoon in january 1989, the 28-Ycar-Oid Southern californian suddenly was seized by a horrible vision. Eileen Franklin immediately understood that what she had just seen was the repressed memory of having witnessed the rape and murder of her Best Friend 8-Ycar-old Susan Nason. The crime which occurred in Foster City calif., on sept. 22, 1969, had never been solved. Twenty years later Eileen Franklin came to the realization that she knew the murderer. It was her own father George Franklin a Man she very much loved despite the fact that he beat and sexually abused his wife and five children including Eileen herself. She now remembered hearing her friends tortured a no done to remembered the Rock coming Down on Susan a head remembered the disposal of the body remembered at last her fathers admonition to Tell no one or else he would kill her As Well. Sins of the father Crown publishers co authored by Eileen Franklin and Veteran non fiction writer William Wright is a faithful rendering of How the Franklin Case  word by Lois Romano the Washington Post Rashieda Moore the Optime Friend of former District of Columbia mayor Marion Barry seems to have a bit More to say. And Doubleday actually believes people want to hear it. To be released in the fall coming clean the feds the mayor the drugs and me. Quot for most of America i exist Only As a woman in a Grainy video taken in a hotel room in Washington d.c.,�?� Moore said soulfully through her publicist a but there a a reason Why 1 put myself in that hotel room my desire to in some Way redeem myself after so much harm and self delusion. My Book is about telling the truth and learning to face the  Moore who is in the Federal witness Protection program after her testimony on barrys drug use helped Send him to jail is writing the Book Quot with free Lance writer James Traub. No word on the Money. But a spokesman for Doubleday assures us a a it a not going to be just a sensationalist Book but one that we feel will be important Reading particularly for african american women on the subjects of gender and race.a sunday january 26, 199?