MOVED: Michael Dobbs — The Six Minute War: Reagan, Russia, and the Race to Automate Armageddon - with David Hoffman — at the Wharf
Michael Dobbs presents *The Six Minute War: Reagan, Russia, and the Race to Automate Armageddon* in conversation with David E. Hoffman. The event examines the tense nuclear confrontation of 1983, when computer failures, shrinking missile-warning times, military exercises, and Cold War mistrust brought the United States and Soviet Union dangerously close to catastrophe.
Dobbs reconstructs incidents including the downing of a South Korean airliner after a navigation error, a false Soviet warning of an incoming American missile attack, a NATO nuclear exercise that triggered a high alert in the Kremlin, and the deployment of missiles in West Germany capable of reaching Moscow within six minutes. The discussion explores the danger of relying on increasingly automated systems in decisions involving nuclear weapons and the possibility that technological hubris could trigger Armageddon.
When: Saturday, October 31, 2026. The event was moved from its originally scheduled October 28, 2026, appearance at The Wharf.
Showtimes: 5:00pm
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC. The event was moved from Politics and Prose at The Wharf.
Tickets: Free, with first-come, first-served seating.
Featured speakers: Michael Dobbs and David E. Hoffman.
About Michael Dobbs: Dobbs is a British-born former Washington Post reporter who covered the collapse of Communism as a foreign correspondent. He has taught at Princeton, the University of Michigan, and Georgetown. His books include the bestselling *One Minute to Midnight*, about the Cuban missile crisis.
About David E. Hoffman: Hoffman is a contributing editor and editorial board member of The Washington Post. His previous roles at the newspaper included assistant managing editor, foreign editor, Jerusalem correspondent, Moscow bureau chief, and White House correspondent. He wrote *The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy*, which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as *The Billion Dollar Spy* and *The Oligarchs*.
Book: *The Six Minute War: Reagan, Russia, and the Race to Automate Armageddon* is available as a $30 hardcover.
Accessibility: Accommodation and accessibility requests may be sent to events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The organizers will try to accommodate requests made up to the time of the event.