Rating: 
Summary: The Abyss is Remiss
Review: At the Abyss is a fascinating autobiography of Reed's political career. It is not a history of the Cold War, but a valued, yet partisan, recital of his experiences during that tumultuous period. I recently had the pleasure of hearing him describe his book at a colloquium, and he is a terrific, enjoyable speaker and person. The book provides valuable first-hand knowledge of some of the key people and events of the time.It also left me with a lot of questions and doubts. He argues that SDI was key contributor to the Soviet collapse, an unsupported notion, easily contested. Reed actually believes that Reagan should be credited with causing the Soviet Union to collapse, but the USSR was already in serious economic decline a decade earlier. Reed takes the position that a nuclear explosion took place in the South Atlantic in 1979; however, the three items of "truth" cited that "came out" are highly interpretive, anecdotal, and out of date. He implies that Russia has been violating their CTBT commitment against nuclear testing at Novaya Zemlya, but his given reasons don't hold water. Reed misses a good opportunity to clarify serious present-day questions about nuclear command and control, especially permissive-action links on warheads. Knowledgeable outsiders have doubts about the past, and maybe present-day, weapons security and the presidential-authorization process. A reader who has not studied Cold War history should beware: Reed is a true-believer in President Reagan's Cold War belligerence and confrontationalism. His book is oblivious and indifferent to the considerable trampling of civil rights and intimidation of dissent during his heyday. The widespread public opposition to Cold War brinkmanship is dismissed in his book as though it was a mere fly in the ointment. Yet, in a book project in which I am involved (www.NuclearShadowboxing.info) it is shown that, during Reagan's administration, outsiders successfully (1) pressured the administration to negotiate with the Soviet Union, (2) shaped the zero-option proposal for the INF Treaty, (3)stalled MX missile expansion, (3) rejected nuclear civil defense, (4) influenced an end to anti-satellite-weapons testing, (5) caused SDI funding to be limited, and (6) prevented overt military intervention in Central America. Reed might not have been one of the major hardliners, but he was an enabler to the win-at-all-costs mentality - to hell with human rights - a Cold War legacy of his friends, the Cheneys and Rumsfelds, who have since led us into Iraq. By all means, enjoy the book, but keep in mind the caveats.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and Stunning
Review: Describing the Cold War is a tough task. This book has it all. It is filled with events we lived through and Tom Reed now raises the curtain and tells us about the things we did not see in the news as the events unfolded. This is a page turner. If the Cold War is of any interest to you at all, THIS IS THE BOOK TO READ.
Rating: 
Summary: His bias is showing
Review: I got this book from the library on a strong recommendation. My
heart sank when I saw the foreward was by ex-Pres Bush pere. I did get through the whole thing, but became increasingly disenchanted.
Author is strongly biased in favor of what may be loosely called "the right wing" (not that those terms have any meaning these days!). He waxes lyrical about Cheney and Rumsfeld --writing even after their iniquities have become public. He skids lightly over misdeeds of the Cold War, especially those of the U.S. The only fairly readable parts were his thumbnail sketches of the military men he encountered during his career. As far as I'm concerned, reading this book was a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: His bias is showing
Review: I got this book from the library on a strong recommendation. My
heart sank when I saw the foreward was by ex-Pres Bush pere. I did get through the whole thing, but became increasingly disenchanted.
Author is strongly biased in favor of what may be loosely called "the right wing" (not that those terms have any meaning these days!). He waxes lyrical about Cheney and Rumsfeld --writing even after their iniquities have become public. He skids lightly over misdeeds of the Cold War, especially those of the U.S. The only fairly readable parts were his thumbnail sketches of the military men he encountered during his career. As far as I'm concerned, reading this book was a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opener
Review: I just finished reading At The Abyss and found it captivating. I greatly appreciated the insider view of the many events ( and key people) that filled both my childhood and early adult life. As a youngster and a young man at that time, many of the early events described in this book are etched in my memory, but they had very little context to them. Mr. Reed has provided the compelling details to fill in the story. I highly recommend the book because I believe that few of my boomer generation really understood, at the time, the gravity of the ongoing cold war struggle with the Soviet Union, so tellingly portrayed here.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opener
Review: I just finished reading At The Abyss and found it captivating. I greatly appreciated the insider view of the many events ( and key people) that filled both my childhood and early adult life. As a youngster and a young man at that time, many of the early events described in this book are etched in my memory, but they had very little context to them. Mr. Reed has provided the compelling details to fill in the story. I highly recommend the book because I believe that few of my boomer generation really understood, at the time, the gravity of the ongoing cold war struggle with the Soviet Union, so tellingly portrayed here.
Rating:
Summary: A History of the Cold War - Long Overdue
Review: Reed writes this insider's history of the Cold War in the prose of a fine novelist. This is a difficult book to put down. It is about powerful people and their interactions within the framework of government at its highest level. Politics and poker! Bureaucracy and those who knew how to cut through it. A calculating and manipulating president's wife. Americans and Soviets exercising superb judgment at critical moments, moments that could have made for a different life on this planet had those judgments not been correct. Five stars from me.
Rating:
Summary: from a Cold Warrier
Review: The stakes couldn't have been higher -- and we won. This breathless, behind-the-scenes account shows exactly how that happened. Tom Clancy meets real-life.
Rating:
Summary: Mind-blowing
Review: The stakes couldn't have been higher -- and we won. This breathless, behind-the-scenes account shows exactly how that happened. Tom Clancy meets real-life.
Rating:
Summary: Reed's Abyss is a real "page turner".
Review: This fascinating book is a must read for those who have "been there" during the Cold War and also for those for whom it is just a part of history. I found the book compelling and exciting, although I wouldn't characterize it as a comprehensive history as much as a memoir of one who viewed the struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union from several significant perspectives.
Three salient points came to mind as I read this book. First, the Cold War was as real a struggle as any of the "hotter" wars in our history. In the early 1970's, I served as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer in SAC. I remember looking across the flightline during the 1973 Yom Kippur War at over 120 hydrogen bombs and warheads being loaded for real when we went to DEFCON 3. My life was dictated by Green Dot Alerts, DEFCONS and Alert Postures, with the knowledge that we were only 30 minutes from nuclear anhiliation. I also remember the professionalism of those in SAC who held the "nuclear keys" and respected them for the responsibilities they had and the awesome decisions they may be called to make. Mr. Reed's portrayal of both sides' desire to avoid the ultimate conflict is comforting, even in hindsight.
The second point I derived from the book is that the Cold War was finally won by our economic might. Interactions between nations have always been governed by economics, all the way back to our Revolutionary War, when the French sided with us in order to benefit from potential trade, and the Dutch bankers helped bankroll the War through loans to the Colonies. Mr. Reed's insights to the total lack of understanding the Soviets had regarding, cost, profit, and the law of supply and demand are particularly enlightening.
The final point I found somewhat disquieting. Mr. Reed's discussion describing the amount of weapons grade uranium and plutonium sitting in the former Soviet Union, coupled with the desires of some nations and terrorist groups who are considerably less rational than the Soviet government and military was makes me wonder how long it will be before the next atmospheric "test" occurs over an American or European population center. Responding to this challenge is as important today as America's response to the Soviet Union was over fifty years ago.
I invite you to read this book and find out for yourself. I think you will find it fascinating.
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