The dead hand / Hoffman, David E

Provides an account of the last decade of the arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, discussing Soviet plans for a "Star Wars" program, their biological weapons, and the doomsday machine known as Dead Hand, and examining the dangers that remained with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the rush to secure the weapons. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

A history of the end of the arms race describes the Soviet Union's development of an automatic retaliatory attack system, the United States's efforts to create space-based missile defenses, and the struggle to prevent nuclear weapons from being acquired by terrorists.