The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy Volumes IV-VI: The Winds of Change: October 29, 1962 - February 7, 1963

In the summer of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked the Secret Service to install a hidden taping system in the White House Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Reel-to-reel tape recorders were placed in the basement, connected to concealed microphones, and operated at the touch of an inconspicuous button at the President's side. Another recorder was connected to the President's telephone. Kennedy's secret recordings, most likely collected in preparation for a memoir of his years in office, provide an extraordinarily revealing and intimate view into the White House during some of the most momentous events of the twentieth century. The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, Volumes IV–VI continue the ambitious project, undertaken by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, to transcribe and annotate the secretly recorded White House tapes. The tapes presented here begin on October 29, 1962-the first day after the Cuban Missile Crisis-and run through February 7, 1963.

About the Author :
The director of the Miller Center's Presidential Recordings Program, David G. Coleman is a history professor at the University of Virginia. He lives in Arlington. Timothy Naftali, a frequent contributor to Slate and NPR, is director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Philip D. Zelikow was executive director of the 9/11 Commission. He is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

Review :
"These volumes of presidential recordings both fascinate and illuminate. They show how John F. Kennedy reached his vital decisions, and they cast important new light on the conflicts of our times. This is history in the raw, and it is compelling." -- Arthur Schlesinger Jr. "A meticulous, thoughtfully rendered set of volumes that offer us the sharpest, clearest, and truest picture of the presidency during a high age of American power. The tense debate, the confusion, the insights, the jokes, the courage-it's all there, as it really happened. This is the true West Wing." -- Evan Thomas "These volumes will intrigue the general reader and keep historians working hard for a long time as we assess and reassess John Kennedy's presidency." -- Michael Beschloss "There is nothing comparable to this multivolume collection of presidential materials. This work is and will be an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the twentieth-century American presidency. It provides us with unprecedented insight into policymaking at the highest level." -- Robert Dallek