The Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, is currently trying to decide if this is a good idea. The purpose of the proposal is to protect our landbased missiles against a Soviet surprise attack. The cause of the proposal is the failure to reach a SALT ban on MIRV technology in 1969, when there was still time. I can think of no other single volume that so well captures the flavor of the debate, summarizes its main arguments and outlines its history, without forgetting what it's all about - the threat of war on a scale so awesome we ought to call it suigenocide. This may seem overambitious, but nothing less will do.
Men can never forget how to make nuclear weapons.
There are two basic styles in the discussion of nuclear war - the prophetic and the rationalist. Mr. Scoville is a rationalist. For the last decade he has been active with various private arms control efforts. He writes in the tone of one confident that man is a thinking animal, that a persuasive argument, clearly expressed, will carry the day against fear or bureaucratic inertia. This is a surprisingly hopeful view for a man who has spent so many years watching the arms builders achieve one technical triumph after another.