Caging the Nuclear Genie: An American Challenge

by Stansfield Turner

Book Overview

The Cold War may be over, but you wouldn't know it from the tens of thousands of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction still held by Russia, the United States, and other world powers. Arguing that the time has come to dispense with incremental approaches to arms control, Admiral Stansfield Turner, the former head of the CIA and an experienced senior military commander, proposes a practical yet safe plan that would move the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813333288
• ISBN13: 9780813333281
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Useful, but too narrowly focused

This is an extraordinary book coming from the hand of one of the men who once was tasked with carrying out the U.S. SIOP plan. Admiral Turner's analysis and suggestions are timely, especially in the light the slow pace of nuclear arms control and the real threat of nuclear proliferation. The failure of the nuclear superpowers to move more forcefully in reducing their nuclear arsenals lends credence to those new or aspiring nuclear nations to subscribe to the nuclear madness. Admiral Turner raises these issues and the danger of accidental launch and nuclear smuggling in the post Cold War era. However, one can question his advocacy of the wisdom of Ballistic Missile defenses. The abandonment of the ABM treaty could have drastic consequences. However,on balance, Admiral Turner's suggestion that we escrow the nuclear weapons offers intriguing possibilites to break the slow pace of nuclear reduction and elimination.