THE DEAD HAND The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy

The "Dead Hand" alludes to a doomsday scheme in which a machine pulls the switch to launch a nuclear retaliation after all the human beings have been vaporized. Amid the governmental paranoia and posturing following WWII, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. armed themselves for a battle never to happen. The Cold War became a competition of colossal excess. Narrator Bob Walter demonstrates his unique and laudable skills as he delivers this account like a thriller. He rolls out the abundant Russian in plausible comfort, uses the subtlest inflections when delivering quotes, and makes the spy stories riveting. Walter's restrained but dramatic portrayal of the Kremlin's mistaken shooting down of a Korean Airliner in 1983 creates a scenario as gripping as any Tom Clancy novel. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2010]