2009, The Washington Post The end of the Cold War left behind enough highly enriched uranium and plutonium in the former Soviet Union to build thousands of nuclear weapons. Stockpiles of chemical weapons and germ warfare facilities remained as well. For the past 18 years, the U.S. government has tried to secure these threats. A central figure in one operation, Project Sapphire, was Andy Weber, now assistant to the defense secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. This account, based on interviews and documents, is adapted from David E. Hoffman's 'The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy,' published this week by Doubleday. The 'Dead Hand' refers to a Soviet idea for a defense system that would retaliate even if the country's leaders were wiped out in a nuclear attack. 