At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold WarRandom House Publishing Group, 2005 M03 1 - 400 páginas “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.” |
Contenido
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
George H W Bush 41st President of the U S PROLOGUE | 3 |
Communist Takeovers and Makeovers | 7 |
The Fifties Unfold | 21 |
The Paparazzi Pilots | 35 |
Howard Hughes Supplies the Props | 61 |
Rockets and Missiles | 69 |
Sputnik and the Missile Gap | 83 |
The Air Force Recovers from Vietnam | 192 |
Inefficiency KillsEmpires as Well as People | 211 |
President Reagan Sets Up the Checkmate | 228 |
Ghost Stories from the Reagan White House | 241 |
The Queen of Hearts | 258 |
Cheney Powell and the Nuclear Genie | 276 |
The Closers | 293 |
The Soviet Solstice | 310 |
Nuclear Weapons and the Soviet Union | 99 |
The American Cyberskippers | 113 |
The Resumption of Nuclear Tests | 132 |
Getting Started in Vietnam | 142 |
Winter on the Spanish Coast | 156 |
Dawn of the Information Age | 170 |
The Heroes | 321 |
Closing Down | 339 |
Epilogue | 347 |
361 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Términos y frases comunes
administration Air Force aircraft American armed Army asked attack base became began Bill Clark bomb bomber Bush called chief Clark clear close Cold Command communications communist Defense delivered device directed early economic engine feet fire flight flying followed four Gerald Ford ground H-bomb half hand head Hughes hundred intelligence knew known later launch leaders lives look March meeting miles military mind missile months Moscow moved Navy needed never North nuclear nuclear weapons October officer once operational pilots political President production Reagan result returned rocket Russian satellite Secretary Secretary of Defense served South Soviet Union staff started strategic submarine thermonuclear things thought took turned United Vietnam wanted warhead Washington weapons week West White House young