The US-Soviet arms race, told through the story of a colorful and visionary American Air Force officer--melding biography, history, world affairs, and science to transport the reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage.

"Compulsively readable and important." --The New York Times Book Review

In this never-before-told story, Neil Sheehan--winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- details American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever's quest to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, and describes American efforts to develop the unstoppable nuclear-weapon delivery system, the intercontinental ballistic missile, the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.

In a sweeping narrative, Sheehan brings to life a huge cast of some of the most intriguing characters of the cold war, including the brilliant physicist John Von Neumann, and the hawkish Air Force general, Curtis LeMay.