The Cold War . . . was a fight to the death, notes Thomas C. Reed, fought with bayonets, napalm, and high-tech weaponry of every sort save one. It was not fought with nuclear weapons. With global powers now engaged in cataclysmic encounters, there is no more important time for this essential, epic account of the past half century, the tense years when the world trembled At the Abyss. Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of America s fight against Communism, from the end of WWII to the closing of...