War Scare (ISBN 0275966437)

Gets carried away trying to present this topic:
While nobody will dispute the dangers of nuclear war, I found the author tried too hard to link historical events to the end of the world. Every situation discussed is interpretted as bringing the world to the brink of war. I did enjoy many of the insights the author presented, but he tried to stretch his point too far on every occasion.

Not Bad...:
This was the first book I have read on the Cold War/Post Cold War between the US and Russia. The book was pretty good, but it seemed to be long a drawn out on some of the encounteres referenced in this book. However, this book did bring to light on how many close calls there really have been between the US and Russia. It was kind of shocking to see events and dates that I remember growing up and did not think twice about at the time appear in this book as "close calls" between the US and Russia.

If You Thought the Cold War Was Over...:
Though in places Pry seems a bit carried away, he does make hispoint- that Russia in its weakened state has not lost an ounce of itsGreat Power Illusion nor its xenophobia. His examples of near-war situations should, however, be looked at a bit skeptically. Perhaps the scariest example was the 1995 Northern Lights fiasco, which somehow teetered on the nuclear brink, in peacetime and without major crises (though Pry does try to make a case for Bosnia being a major sore point.) Overall, though, I found this most illuminating and certainly deserving of more discussion in the general media than it's received to date.

Are you interested in the Russian Leadership? READ THIS:
The idea of the book seems incredible at first. Is Russia actually more scared of the US and more ready to nuke us than they were in the 1980s? All those things the Generals say is just puff to get more budget money! Unfortunately, this is not the case. The generals really believe this to be the case. Though the previous review said that Pry stretches his point, the more I read on the subject the more convinced I am that Pry is more or less right. Another study of Russia's current security doctrine can be found at: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usassi/ssipubs/pubs2000/thrussec/thrussec.htm and it backs Pry up 100%. (I have no connection to the authors or publishers of either book) All in all, I think this is a factual, and worrisome discussion of the Russian General Staff's thinking, and I think that if you're interested in the Russian military, US Defense or related issues this book is a must buy. It's best point is that it actually EXPLAINS WHY the Russians think this way, and forces you to understand why they think so. In all honesty, if I were in their mindset, I'd be rabidly scared too. The sad thing is that, of course, the schemes they fear are completely untrue. They feel threatened by a country that does not threaten them.

A must read:
Is the cold war really over? Maybe to the United States it is but the Russians still have thousands of warheads pointed at us. We shouldn't take their threats lightly as we did during the Kosovo crisis. This book talks about the paranoid mind set of current Russian leaders. If you want to remain happy and ignorant, don't buy this book, it will only depress you knowing just how desperate things are in the former Soviet Union.