Gibson2011a

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Gibson2011a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Gibson2011a
Author(s) David R. Gibson
Title Avoiding catastrophe: the interactional production of possibility during the Cuban Missile Crisis
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Decision Making
Publisher
Year 2011
Language
City
Month
Journal American Journal of Sociology
Volume 117
Number 2
Pages 361-419
URL Link
DOI 10.1086/661761
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

In October 1962, the fate of the world hung on the U.S. response to the discovery of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy’s decision to impose a blockade was based on hours of discussions with top advisers (the so-called ExComm), yet decades of scholarship on the crisis have missed the central puzzle: How did the group select one response, the blockade, when all options seemed bad? Recently released audio recordings are used to argue that the key conversational activity was storytelling about an uncertain future. Kennedy’s choice of a blockade hinged on the narrative “suppression” of its most dangerous possible consequence, namely the perils of a later attack against operational missiles, something accomplished through omission, self-censorship, ambiguation, uptake failure, and narrative interdiction. The article makes the very first connection between the localized dynamics of conversation and decision making in times of crisis, and offers a novel processual account of one of the most fateful decisions in human history.

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