A preeminent Cold War scholar writes insightfully of the historic effects of the military build-up brought on by the Cold War and its effect on strategy. Bringing together for the first time newly declassified information, David Miller takes readers inside the arsenals of the superpowers, describing how intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-based missiles, strategic bombers, and conventional weapons were employed by both sides, as well as the ways in which they were, at many points, almost brought to bear. His in-depth analysis of how military strategy shaped history, and his accounts of crises which could have turned the Cold War hot—the suppression of the Budapest uprising in 1956, and the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981—are particularly compelling. Many books have been written about the politics in this turbulent period, but none have so comprehensively examined the military strategy and tactics of this dangerous era."Awesome in every sense." —The Evening Standard (London)