U.S. Nuclear Weapons the Secret History

By Chuck Hansen

Book Overview

U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History, by Hansen, Chuck This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517567407
• ISBN13: 9780517567401
• Release Date: March 1988
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The foundation to US Nuclear Weapon history/design

Mr. Hansen's book, "US Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History" has become an essential reference for this important area of national security. The diagrams, pictures and references to DOE/DoD publications is invaluable. Throughout the text, there are minor areas that cover the gray area of being unclassified to sensitive - This kind of intrigue makes it worth the read. One of the best features of the book is the tabulated lists of specific weapons design to individual weapon systems. From this I can easily know that a Mark III was the "Fat Man" and the Mk 12 fits on the top of a Minuteman ICBM. This alone makes the book valuable. One confusing aspect is the history of nuclear tests. There are very few clear tables showing test NAME, PLACE, YIELD; the info has to be gleaned from the [small-print] text. The photo spread has awesome color photos of random test shots. One photo shows the crater made by an underground shot - like USAF missileers say, "Its not the blast that kills you; its the fall to the bottom of the crater..." The ONLY drawback to this book is its OUTRAGEOUS price. I happened to obtain a good copy for $30. I can't say if you should spend hundreds of dollars to purchase - but if you to obtain it, you will definitely appreciate it.

I was amazed at how much information this contained

I am surprised that this book is even legal. I forget what I paid for it but the fact that it now costs over $400 shows what a classic it is. I'm surprised they don't do a second printing. This contains easy to understand descriptions of both fission and fusion physics and gets into details that are almost design specifications. It also gives us a detailed look at the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal. I get the feeling from this book, and the book "The Secret that Exploded" by Howard Morland, who is associated politically with Hansen (they are both anti nuke "Progressives"), that Chuck thinks that explaining how they work will somehow cause the reader to become anti-nuclear. That we will consider it scandalous that some H-bombs use Lithium 6 deuteride, rather than Lithium 7 deuteride. (I protest, how dare they do that!!) Maybe he just hates secrecy and tried his best to publicize all of this to spit in the face of the secret keepers. In any case, this is one of the most interesting books on this subject I have ever read. I just hope Osama doesn't own a copy!

A MUST HAVE for your library

I coulda sworn I wrote a review for this book. Ah, well... This book was written by Chuck Hansen in 1988. It represents the sum total of all of the releasable information on the United States Nuclear Weapons Program at that period. The volume is chock full of photographs, facts, figures, dates, places, and names. There is *NO* fluff. For many years, it has been *the* reference book on US Nuclear Weapons Systems. It explains very well the theories behind how the sytems operate, broken down into sections such as, nuclear weapons physics, arming, fuzing and firing, weapons systems types, etc. This book graces the shelves of every subject matter expert. Look at the more knowledgable articles on the subject; they all reference this book in the appendix. Unfortunately, there were only a few printings. For this reason, it has become scarce, and expensive when it does appear ( I paid ($$$) for my exc/exc HB copy). I possess just about every tome on the subject. There is no other book that covers the same ground with the same detail as this one. It simply is the encyclopedia of Nuclear Weapons Non-Sensitive / Unclassified Information.

The Ultimate Resource on Nuclear Weapons

I study nuclear weapons, and this book was an enormous part of my learning! This book has every declassified fact about all the nuclear weapons employed by the United States. Sometimes I think it has things that aren't declassified! This is a MUST-HAVE for all nuclear weapons enthusiasts.

If you're serious about nukes, you have to get this one!

I work on nuclear weapons in the USAF. When I came across this book I had to have it! It has everything unclassified you could think of. Many weapons engineers I Know in the nuclear community have this book on their desk as a reference. Outstanding work Mr. Hansen!