Insight with David E. Hoffman: Reagan, Gorbachev and the Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race

David E. Hoffman, who worked for 27 years as a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, will be at the Frontline Club to discuss the relationship between US president Ronald Reagan and Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the dying days of the Cold War.

Author of The Dead Hand, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative history of this era, David E. Hoffman covered the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and was Moscow bureau chief from 1995 to 2001.

From the discovery of a Soviet biological warfare machine to the refusal of Gorbachev in 1985 to compete in Reagan’s massive “Star Wars” weaponry programme, Hoffman tells the inside story of this fascinating era, including the little-known story of the Soviet semi-automatic retaliatory system known as the Dead Hand, a Doomsday Device that would leave the fate of Earth in the hands of three surviving duty officers buried deep underground in a concrete, globe-shaped bunker.

Hoffman will be in conversation with investigative journalist, university lecturer and author of Spyflights of the Cold War and co author of Britain’s Secret Propaganda War, Paul Lashmar.

Join us for what should be a fascinating evening looking back at the Reagan/Gorbachev era.