On the brink

the long version

On the Brink is a gripping narrative of the Cold War, told through the stories of three men and one woman who changed history during one of the world's most decisive and divisive decades. In an extraordinary journey inside the Reagan era, rich in personal drama, Washington infighting, and international intrigue, Jay Winik not only captures the historic issues but takes us behind the scenes and into the turbulent lives of the daring but all-too-human men and women who dominated the nation's capital and drove the policies of war and peace. Based on exclusive interviews and unparalleled access to key officials and confidential documents, On the Brink reveals, blow by blow, the crucial events and harrowing debates that never reached the headlines: in closed meetings in Washington's marble-floored corridors of power, in Central American jungle encounters and precarious European negotiations, in furious backroom confrontations at the U.N., and in the historic summits between Reagan and Gorbachev. From a tense U.S.-Soviet standoff and hair-raising nuclear missile deployments, guerrilla wars, and secret diplomacy abroad, the action shifts to agonizing in the Kremlin and the most dramatic summit in history, at Hofdi House.