Recommended: The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy

Now that the Cold War is over (though a new one may be starting) and some of the secret files of both the USSR and the USA are available to scholars, we are learning a lot that we didn't know at the time, most of it a bit unsettling. David Hoffman's 2010 book The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, working from newly declassified documents and interviews with some of the key players in both the US and the USSR, takes us into the thinking of Soviet and American leaders at the time.

This is interesting history, especially for those of us who lived through those times. But it is more than that; it is a template for how things, in both the US and Russia, are probably still evolving, especially with Russian resurgence under President Putin and the renewed US arms buildup in response to that resurgence (not to mention China's threat).  And it makes clear how easy it is for leaders to misjudge and misunderstand leaders in other cultures. This book is worth reading.