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Title: The Wizards of Armageddon (Stanford Nuclear Age Series) by Fred Kaplan, Martin J. Sherwin ISBN: 0-8047-1884-9 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The human side of the "nuclear strategists"
Comment: Fred Kaplan has done something very hard to achieve: portray a bunch of, well, nerds with sympathy and humor, explaining their trains of logic and their conclusions in readable prose. It is hard because most of them were micro-economists who lived in a world of utility functions, game theory, and loops of mathematical logic - just the kind of stuff that puts many off (like me) of "public policy" as an academic field that is dominated by economists who are little more than self-important if intelligent twits - with no practical wisdom whatsoever.
However, this group was important because they were trying to encapsulate nuclear weapons into their rationalist methodologies. Kaplan's book is the ideal companion to Freeman's Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, which is so dry by comparison and yet covers the strategy better. It is a fun read, though a bit overwhelming to get through as there were SO MANY of them. (There was an added interest for me, as I knew some of these characters as a student and was unimpressed with them as thinkers while respecting their impact on public policy.)
Whoever thought that microeconomists following their threads of logic could have had such an enormous influence on military strategy. I never would have! If I understood it, what they did was link military considerations into a mathematical methodology that could be studied and discussed and that offered conclusions - or predictions - if (tortuously) followed to their end. This helped military planers get a handle on these issues and (perhaps) to think more clearly.
Much of quality of this book is due to the fact that Kaplan is a really good reporter and not an academic who is just shuffling papers. He got out and talked to a lot of these guys, though none of them appear as particularly sympathetic characters to me. Amazingly, he used this book as his PhD disseration at MIT in poli-sci. You gotta respect him as a writer.
Recommended as a colorful view of some weird thinkers who had enormous influence on our lives.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Bomb I Grew Up Studying
Comment: This book was one of the greatest I have had the pleasure to read. I was so fascinated reading this that I stayed up reading the book for three days straight. I then had to read it again, this time going four days without sleep, mainly because I'm an idiot. I gave up work and school studying the tactics used in the groups mentioned. I was very intigued, and have started reading it again. ...
Rating: 4
Summary: The Bomb I Grew Up With
Comment: This fascinating review of nuclear strategy covers the period from 1945 to 1990. It is extraordinarily clear in presenting the options faced by Presidents and decision makers, and how they resulted in strategy that varied between "Nuke them back to the Stone Age" in 1948 to "MX Racetracks in the Nevada Desert" in the Caarter and Reagan Administration.
I found it a most compelling read, causing me to sacrifice sleep to continue, because it names names, dates, and places. Insight into all the news figures I grew up seeing on TV News.
I grew up as an Army Brat in the 1960's and 1970's, and this book explains why many of the weapons systems came and went. In-fact, it explains why our family "Came and Went" on a few stations!
I highly recommend this if you have even a passing interest in Nuclear War strategy and National Policy, or even in what part you and/or your parents/grandparents played in the "Big Picture".
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Title: Evolution of Nuclear Strategy by Lawrence Freedman ISBN: 0333972392 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 03 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Thinking About the Unthinkable in the 1980's by Herman Kahn ISBN: 067160449X Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1985 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Prompt and Utter Destruction: President Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan by J. Samuel Walker ISBN: 0807846627 Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces by P. L. Podvig ISBN: 0262162024 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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Title: Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet by Jim Mann, James Mann ISBN: 0670032999 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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