The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy David E. Hoffman, Doubleday, 2009, 577 pp.

The Dead Hand is a stunning and authoritative account of Soviet nuclear and biological weapons programs, arms control negotiations in the Cold War's last decade, and the urgent attempts by the United States in the succeeding years to stanch the dissemination of weapons and weapons technology as the Soviet Union disintegrated. David Hoffman, contributing editor and former Moscow bureau chief of The Washington Post, has uncovered a remarkable trove of evidence, including more than 10,000 pages of documents from Vitaly Katayev, a Soviet Communist Party Central Committee scribe for nearly 20 years. Enhanced by Hoffman's interviews of Soviet leaders, key military officers on the General Staff, and scientists responsible for the Soviet Union's massive clandestine program to develop and produce biological weapons and by his skillful integration of President Ronald Reagan's diaries, the book provides a brisk and compelling narrative. - GREG THIELMANN