Misreading the Soviet threat

Noel E. Firth and James H. Noren, Soviet Defense Spending: A History of CIA Estimates, 1950–1990, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1998. Pp.xix + 291, appendices, notes, references, index. $49.95. ISBN 0–89096–805–5

Anne Hessing Cahn, Killing Detente: The Right Attacks the CIA, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. Pp.viii + 232, appendix, glossary, bibliog., index. $24.50. ISBN 0–271–01791–0

Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Pp.604, notes, index. $30. ISBN 0–684–81081–6

Frances Fitzgerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Pp.592, glossary, notes, index. $30. ISBN 0–684–84416–8