At the Abyss; An Insider's History of the Cold War

ix, [7], 368 pages. Maps Illustrations. Index. Inscribed by author on half-title. DJ has slight wear. Thomas Care Reed (born March 1, 1934)[2] was the 11th Secretary of the Air Force from January 2, 1976 - April 6, 1977 under Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Reed began active duty with the Air Force in November 1956, and served until 1959 as technical project officer for the Minuteman Re-Entry Vehicle System. In 1959, he was assigned to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, engaged in thermonuclear weapons physics. He joined the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory as a civilian for the 1962 test series, continuing there as a consultant until 1967. Reed joined the Department of Defense as an assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense in 1973, and was appointed director of Telecommunications and Command and Control Systems in February 1974. At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War is an autobiographical book about his experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory through his time as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan. It reveals new details about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Farewell Dossier, and other facets of the Cold War. At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War is an autobiographical book about Thomas C. Reed's experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory through his time as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan. It reveals new details about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Farewell Dossier, and other facets of the Cold War. Reed stated the United States added a Trojan horse to gas pipeline control software that the Soviet Union obtained from Canada. When the components were deployed on a Trans-Siberian gas pipeline, the Trojan horse led to a huge explosion. A report in the Moscow Times quoted Vasily Pchelintsev as saying that there was a natural gas pipeline explosion in 1982, but it was near Tobolsk on a pipeline connecting the Urengoy gas field, and it was caused by poor construction; Pchelintsev claimed no one was killed in the explosion and the damage was repaired within one day. Reed's account has not been corroborated by intelligence agencies. Publishers Weekly opined: The book deserves quite high marks, offering a viewpoint on the Cold War not nearly sufficiently well-represented in the literature: that neither the U.S. nor Soviets were dominated by bomb-happy maniacs. First Edition [stated]. Fifth Printing [stated].…