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

This book can be neatly divided into two halves. The first half, encompassing the author's career from his start in the USAF in the late 50s, through Reagan's election in 1980, is a fascinating account of cold war history that reads like a Tom Clancy novel. Once Reagan is elected, and the author becomes Secretary of USAF, it becomes too autobiographical and loses objectivity. He spends 4 chapters cheer leading Reagan's accomplishments, and devotes about two sentences to Iran Contra, which he seemed to blame on Nancy. There is a lot of fascinating history in this book, and the I do share the author's admiration for the men and women on the ground who never screwed up and pushed us over the brink into WWIII. One thing you will get from show more this book is a sense of just how lucky we are to have made it through the cold war without a civilization ending accident. show less

I really enjoyed it. My dad said it was really interesting to hear the back stories behind the news. The only thing I didn't fully like is how each chapter would tell the full story of a subject, then he would go back in time to start the next subject, that said I wouldn't know how else to write it.