The US-Soviet arms race, told through the story of a colorful and
visionary American Air Force officer--melding biography, history,
world affairs, and science to transport the reader back and forth from
individual drama to world stage.
Compulsively readable and important." --The New York Times Book
Review
*
*In this never-before-told story, Neil Sheehan--winner of the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Award -- details American Air Force officer
Bernard Schriever's quest to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring
nuclear superiority, and describes American efforts to develop the
unstoppable nuclear-weapon delivery system, the intercontinental
ballistic missile, the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust
rather than to be fired in anger.
In a sweeping narrative, Sheehan brings to life a huge cast of some of
the most intriguing characters of the cold war, including the brilliant
physicist John Von Neumann, and the hawkish Air Force general, Curtis
LeMay.