Most readers are familiar with the heroic version of the Cuban missile crisis — initially fashioned by journalists in the first years after the event, encouraged by JFK himself, popularized by the writings of Kennedy administration insiders like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Theodore Sorensen, and given wide currency in dramatizations such as “The Missiles of October.” In this version, the courageous young American president, always cool under fire, successfully resisted the aggressive designs of the Soviet Union and its puppet regime in Cuba to win a decisive victory over Communism. This heroic consensus did not last long.