Foreign Affairs described the book as thick and the information overwhelming, concluding that the piece was germane "to more analytically oriented scholars".[1] In The New York Times, John Newhouse gives a generally favorable review of "Deep Black" while taking nuanced exception to Burrows’ depiction of the Sputnik launch as "the most pernicious problem" of the Eisenhower White House.[2] An excerpt from this review is featured prominently on the bottom of front covers of later-published paperback editions: