The Cure: A Story of Cancer and Politics from the Annals of the Cold War

Nikolai Krementsov

University of Chicago Press, $26/£16.50, pp 277

ISBN 0 226 45284 0

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At the end of the second world war, when Russia drew an “iron curtain” across Europe, the secret of atomic power was known only on the Western side. While espionage inevitably proved the most successful strategy in the long run, Russia's earlier plan to acquire this information by swapping it for its own top secret cure for cancer sounds like a great idea for a book, maybe even for a Hollywood film. Unfortunately, the high drama of these events …