The dead hand
Elsewhere
Third-party community scores — not affiliated with those sites. See disclaimer.
- Read: September 2026
- Author: David E. Hoffman
- First published: 2009
- Edition published: 2018
Synopsis
This riveting narrative history of the end of the arms race sheds new light on the frightening last chapters of the Cold War and the legacy of the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that remain a threat today. During the Cold War, world superpowers amassed nuclear arsenals containing the explosive power of one million Hiroshimas. The Soviet Union secretly plotted to create the "Dead Hand," a system designed to launch an automatic retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States, and developed a fearsome biological warfare machine. President Ronald Reagan, hoping to awe the Soviets into submission, pushed hard for the creation of space-based missile defenses.In the first full account of how the arms race finally ended, The Dead Hand provides an unprecedented look at the inner motives and secret decisions of each side. Drawing on top-secret documents from deep inside the Kremlin, memoirs, and interviews in both Russia and the United States, David Hoffman introduces the scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies who saw the world sliding toward disaster and tells the gripping story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and many others struggled to bring the madness to an end. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the danger continued, and the United States began a race against time to keep nuclear and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists and and rogue states.From the Hardcover edition.
Source: Open Library (edited as needed)
My commentary
A masterful investigation and a tremendous piece of journalistic work. The terrifying depiction of the arms race and military buildup that preceded the fall of the Soviet Union provides much food for thought when considering the present. More broadly, I found the book revealing in its depiction of how the thoughts, impulses, and behaviors of political leaders can have consequences that reach far beyond their intentions and well into the future. One example is particularly striking. During his early acting years, Reagan had appeared in a television show in which a town was enclosed beneath a dome. Years later, he applied a version of this idea to a multibillion-dollar initiative aimed at developing a space-based continental defense system that would render Soviet strategic missiles obsolete. The project had little tangible manifestation beyond a relatively small group of people working on the concept, and, in practical terms, was—and remains—impossible to build or deploy as envisioned. Yet Gorbachev and the Soviet leadership dramatically exaggerated the threat they believed the system posed. In a particularly harrowing twist of events, they ultimately rejected the possibility of full nuclear disarmament because Reagan refused to abandon his dream of an anti-missile "dome." Thus, they may have fallen short of what could have been one of the most significant achievements for peace and human security in the 20th century—not because the technology existed, but because one person was convinced that the other's dream might be possible. This raises a much broader and unsettling question for me: to what extent are ordinary citizens—even the most capable and knowledgeable among us—able to shape the reality around them when their lives and futures can hinge on decisions made by other people, often operating with incomplete information, imperfect judgment, and deeply held beliefs about what is possible?
Awards
- Non-fictionPulitzer Prize