<p>Sapphire, as the Preface explains, is a tale or saga of perhaps the most dangerous period of the Cold War. This was a time when the two superpower antagonists seeking the mastery of the world were challenging each other in important peripheral areas around the world, risking dangerous escalation to major war. At the same time they were creating enormous arsenals of total destruction on hair trigger alert in a situation where neither side had a good idea what the other was doing, therefore having to always "worst case" everything. It is extraordinary that the fatal mistake was not made somewhere along the line-and it nearly was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 at the end of this period-precipitating worldwide nuclear war. Into this maelstrom entered a young woman tasked by her employer, the Central Intelligence Agency, to try to find a way to provide more openness between the sides and reduce worst-case planning as well as to try to help prevent regional confrontations from damaging US interests and spinning into world crisis. Sapphire is the story of that young woman, primarily during the years 1954 to 1961.</p>
