At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891418210 ISBN 13: 9780891418214

Publisher: Presidio Press, 2004

Synopsis

At the Abyss is an insider's dramatic account of the dark decades of the Cold War, from its beginnings in the 1950s through to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It tells how calm and steady hands on both sides of the Atlantic walked back from the edge of nuclear warfare, revealing how perilously close the U.S and Soviet Union came to nuclear war, time and time again. October 1962 was a month of anxiety, tension and fear in both the United States and Russia, as the leaders of the world's two great powers Thomas C Reed was Secretary of the Air Force, a CIA insider and an advisor to President Regan, and had unprecedented access to the key people, places, and events during the Cold War years. With an introduction by former President George H. W. Bush Fascinating insight into U.S./Soviet relations in the last half of the 20th century

About this title

About the Author

Thomas C. Reed is a former Secretary of the Air Force. He has been Director of National Reconnaissance, a Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Policy, and a consultant to the Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where much of the country’s nuclear weapons research takes place. He lives in northern California.

From the Inside Flap

The Cold War . . . was a fight to the death, notes Thomas C. Reed, fought with bayonets, napalm, and high-tech weaponry of every sort save one. It was not fought with nuclear weapons. With global powers now engaged in cataclysmic encounters, there is no more important time for this essential, epic account of the past half century, the tense years when the world trembled At the Abyss. Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of America s fight against Communism, from the end of WWII to the closing of the Strategic Air Command, a work as full of human interest as history, rich characters as bloody conflict.

Among the unforgettable figures who devised weaponry, dictated policy, or deviously spied and subverted: Whittaker Chambers the translator whose book, Witness, started the hunt for bigger game: Communists in our government; Lavrenti Beria the head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program who apparently killed Joseph Stalin; Col. Ed Hall the leader of America s advanced missile system, whose own brother was a Soviet spy; Adm. James Stockwell the prisoner of war and eventual vice presidential candidate who kept his terrible secret from the Vietnamese for eight long years; Nancy Reagan the Queen of Hearts, who was both loving wife and instigator of palace intrigue in her husband s White House.

From Eisenhower s decision to beat the Russians at their own game, to the Missile Gap of the Kennedy Era, to Reagan s vow to lean on the Soviets until they go broke all the pivotal events of the period are portrayed in new and stunning detail with information only someone on the front lines and in backrooms could know.

Yet At the Abyss is more than a riveting and comprehensive recounting. It is a cautionary tale for our time, a revelation of how, those years . . . came to be known as the Cold War, not World War III.

Edition details

• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0891418210
• ISBN 13: 9780891418214
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Reed Thomas C.