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notes Thomas C. Reed,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 . Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of Americas 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 Chambersthe translator whose book, , started the hunt for bigger game: Communists in our government; Lavrenti Beriathe head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program who apparently killed Joseph Stalin; Col. Ed Hallthe leader of Americas advanced missile system, whose own brother was a Soviet spy; Adm. James Stockwellthe prisoner of war and eventual vice presidential candidate who kept his terrible secret from the Vietnamese for eight long years; Nancy Reaganthe Queen of Hearts, who was both loving wife and instigator of palace intrigue in her husbands White House.

From Eisenhowers decision to beat the Russians at their own game, to the Missile Gap of the Kennedy Era, to Reagans vow to lean on the Soviets until they go brokeall 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 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.