March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939 to the Present
Rarely will one find such a felicitous combination of books on nuclear weapons strategy and the arms race. Charlton had extensive interview experience with the BBC and in this oral history brings together 23 prominent Americans and Europeans to discuss the evolution of American nuclear strategy. The theme is the transition from the doctrine of mutual assured destruction to Star Wars. The book includes the observations of President Carter, Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Caspar Weinberger, among others. The observations of Europeans add perspective. The tensions, contradictions, rationalizations, ambiguities of the debate over the move from deterrence to defense are revealed in the comments of specialists and partisans of each policy. Powaski has assembled a detailed history of the arms race from the Manhattan Project to the Iceland Summit of 1986. His theme is that despite the rhetorical commitment to arms control, every president has left office with the U.S. nuclear arsenal greater in size, technological sophistication, or geographical reach. The dynamics of the international system, the cold war, technological pressure, and mistrust have proven to have a greater impact on decisions than the virtues of arms control. Powaski provides the reader with the details of the arms race in a comprehensive, well-organized, well-written fashion. Charlton makes the reader part of the dialogue of men who defined what it meant to win or lose that race. Both books are recommended. Richard B. Finnegan, Political Science Dept., Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.