The Dead Hand by David E Hoffman
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.£9.49 from the Independent Bookshop: 08430 600 030
The Dead Hand by David E Hoffman
Reviewed by Christopher Hirst
The sub-title "Reagan, Gorbachev and the untold story of the cold war arms race" is less than enticing, and the suggestion of dull worthiness is not dispelled by the book having won the Pulitzer Prize. But you're hooked from page one with an account of a mysterious epidemic in the Urals in 1979. It could be the screenplay for the new blockbuster, Contagion. "There are dead bodies, people still alive, lying together," wrote a doctor. "This is a nightmare. Something is very, very wrong." It certainly was. A leak of anthrax spores from a secret military microbiology facility killed 60.
Contagion gives way to Dr Strangelove as Hoffman moves on to an early warning station outside Moscow, where one night in 1983 the system flashed into life. A US missile attack on Russia was given the status of "High Reliability". Missiles would have been readied for launch against America but for a cool-headed colonel.
Every page of this big book about the final spasms of the US-Soviet arms race is packed with interest. Though Gorbachev and Reagan were convinced of the need to reduce arms stocks, weapons of mass destruction were inscribed in the military DNA of both superpowers. The title of Hoffman's chilling investigation was borrowed from a retaliatory system considered by Soviet leaders in the early Eighties that would operate if the normal command system were destroyed. "Computers would memorise the early warning and nuclear attack data... then order the retaliation without human control."
Eventually, Dead Hand was dropped but a response system called Perimeter was introduced in 1985. This last resort depended on "relatively junior duty officers" sitting in underground bunkers, who under certain conditions would press the button for nuclear response. "There would be no communications with the outside world, no negotiating... and no recalling the command rockets when launched."
When they first met in 1985, Gorbachev and Reagan represented superpowers with a joint stockpile of 60,000 nuclear warheads. Their agreement to dismantle this mountain of death prompted the attempted coup d'etat against Gorbachev in 1991. Today, their stockpile amounts to 23,000 nuclear warheads, 95 per cent of the world total. While urging the continued destruction of nuclear weapons, Hoffman concludes that a greater danger comes from terrorists developing pathogens.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments