Andrew Wilson's 1968 book was the first to describe for the general reader the evolution of the war game as a serious, and sometimes unreliable, military planning tool. The author was the Defence Correspondent to the Observer Newspaper. He was granted special access to the Pentagon and other secret sources of information and interviewed many leading experts on policy-making on both sides of the Atlantic. The result was an authoritative and readable work on the subject that was directly related to the precarious balance of power in the Cold War. The book demonstrates how crucial war games were in American weapon development, foreign policy and war fighting plans during the dark days of the Cold War. The book is published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of a series to make key developments in wargaming available to the modern enthusiast.