Julie Mcdowall

Fingers on the nuclear button

Reagan’s Star Wars panicked the Soviets into putting their nuclear arsenal on highest alert. But a cool Nato commander refused to react

issue 26 May 2018

  • 1983: The World at the Brink

    Taylor Downing

    Little, Brown, pp. 320

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Read next

Trending

Damian Thompson

The extraordinary scale of the crisis facing the next pope

From the magazine
At 9.47 a.m. on Easter Monday we heard the words ‘con profondo dolore’ from a cardinal standing in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. Two hours earlier, Pope Francis ‘è tornato alla casa del Padre’ – ‘had returned to the house of the Father’. Most people won’t have noticed a curious detail: the cardinal

More on book review

Also by Julie Mcdowall

Latest

Comments

Join the debate for just £1 a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.

Already a subscriber? Log in