The Nuclear Express; A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation

Reed, Thomas C., and Stillman, Danny B.

ISBN 10: 0760335028 / ISBN 13: 9780760335024

Published by Zenith Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2009

About this Item

viii, 392 pages. Illustrations. Footnotes. Glossary. Appendices (including Chronology). Index. Thomas C. Reed was a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Secretary of the Air Force under presidents Ford and Carter, and was a Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Policy. Danny B. Stillman was a physicist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory with decades of experience in nuclear weapon design, diagnostics, and testing. For more than a decade, Stillman directed the Los Alamos Technical Intelligence Division and upon completion of that assignment he was awarded the Intelligence Community Seal Medal. The authors bring together decades of experience at both the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. This is a political history of nuclear weapons from the discovery of fission in 1938 to the nuclear train wreck that seems to loom in our future. It is an account of where those weapons came from, how the technology surprisingly and covertly spread, and who is likely to acquire those weapons next and most importantly why. The authors' examination of post Cold War national and geopolitical issues regarding nuclear proliferation and the effects of Chinese sponsorship of the Pakistani program is eye opening. The reckless "nuclear weapons programs for sale" exporting of technology by Pakistan is truly chilling, as is the on-again off-again North Korean nuclear weapons program. Thomas C. Reed, a veteran of the Livermore weapons laboratory in California and a former secretary of the Air Force, and Danny B. Stillman, former director of intelligence at Los Alamos, have teamed up in The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation to show the importance of moles, scientists with divided loyalties and most important the subtle and not so subtle interests of nuclear states.The authors build their narrative on deep knowledge of the arms and intelligence worlds, including those abroad. Mr. Stillman has toured heavily guarded nuclear sites in China and Russia, and both men have developed close ties with foreign peers. Robert S. Norris, an atomic historian and author of 'Racing for the Bomb,' an account of the Manhattan Project, praised the book for remarkable disclosures of how nuclear knowledge was shared overtly and covertly with friends and foes. The book is technical in places, as when detailing the exotica of nuclear arms. But it reads like a labor of love built on two lifetimes of scientific adventure.Its wide perspective reveals how states quietly shared complex machinery and secrets with one another --New York Times. Ranging widely over the subject, Messrs. Reed and Stillman assemble a mass of details, technical and political, to tell us how the world reached this parlous state.The authors are at their best when describing what they know well: the inner workings of these frightening devices --Wall Street Journal. Reed (former secretary of the air force) has joined with veteran Los Alamos physicist Stillman to write a complement to his earlier At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War. This book illustrates how nuclear technology and scientific knowledge was developed and distributed according to decisions made within fluctuating global geopolitical contexts. Even peaceful research and energy programs can be easily co-opted for military uses. While radical Islamic fundamentalism is clearly a dangerous threat to a weakened America, the authors emphasize how an ambitious and rising China has been quick to aid proliferation in its bid to become the world's leading power. Most important is the human element-who decides to use the weapons and why-and this is not always predictable or preventable. It is all very alarming, no doubt what the authors intended. Suitable for academic and public libraries-Library Journal--This grim warning from former nuclear weapons designer Reed (At the Abyss: An Insider s History of the Cold War) and former.

Seller Inventory # 76700

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Nuclear Express; A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation
• Publisher: Zenith Press, Minneapolis, MN
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0760335028
• ISBN 13: 9780760335024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Schwartzberg, Phil [Meridian Mapping] (Maps)
• Edition: Presumed first edition/first printing.
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Atomic Bomb
  • Proliferation

About this title

Synopsis

This is a political history of nuclear weapons from the discovery of fission in 1938 to the nuclear train wreck that seems to loom in our future.  It is an account of where those weapons came from, how the technology surprisingly and covertly spread, who is likely to acquire those weapons next and most importantly why.

 

The authors’ examination of post-Cold War national and geopolitical issues regarding nuclear proliferation and the effects of Chinese sponsorship of the Pakistani program is eye opening. The reckless “nuclear weapons programs for sale” exporting of technology by Pakistan is truly chilling as is the on again off again North Korean nuclear weapons program.

About the Authors

Thomas C. Reed is a former nuclear weapons designer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Secretary of the Air Force under Ford and Carter, and Special Assistant to President Reagan for National Security Policy. Reed's previous book is At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War. He resides in northern California.Danny B. Stillman is a Los Alamos physicist with decades of experience in nuclear design, diagnostics, and testing. For thirteen years Stillman directed the Los Alamos Technical Intelligence Division; at the end of that tour, he was awarded the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion. He lives in White Rock, New Mexico.

Danny B. Stillman is a Los Alamos physicist with decades of experience in nuclear design, diagnostics, and testing. For thirteen years Stillman directed the Los Alamos Technical Intelligence Division; at the end of that tour he was awarded the Intelligence Community Seal Medallion. Stillman is an engineering physics graduate of University of Washington. He lives in White Rock, New Mexico.