Show 59 Blitz The Destroyer Of Worlds

“Historian Gary Wills, who wrote a whole book on the power of the atomic bomb to change everything, had this to say about what would have happened if Truman had decided not to use the bombs.”

“The best relatively short description I've read of the effect of the two bombs was penned by author Susan Southerd in her book about Nagasaki.”

“In their book to win a nuclear war, Machiokaku and Daniel Axelrod tell the story this way. Oppenheimer and the president and the Secretary of State are talking.”

“A more R-rated version of the story is told in Jean-Jacques Solomon's Science at Politique, where he said, quote, Oppenheimer, when he went into Truman's office with Dean Acheson, said to the latter, wringing his hands, I have blood on my hand.”

“A lively and well-documented account of how the Cold War both produced and was sustained by super patriotism, intolerance, and suspicion, and how these pathologies infected all aspects of American life in the 1950s.”

“Eric Schlosser writes in Command and Control about the moral grounds questioned by admirals regarding the use of atomic bombs.”

“Michiokaku and Daniel Axelrod in their book, How to Win a Nuclear War, discuss the geopolitical tensions during the Berlin airlift crisis.”

“In his book Prisoner's Dilemma, author William Poundstone quotes Harry Truman's Science Advisor, a guy named William Golden, who penned a letter where he tried to imagine how a man from Mars might view the geopolitical situation.”

“In his book, Ike's Bluff, author Evan Thomas weaves in Eisenhower's near addiction to strategy card games and draws that into Eisenhower's conduct of world affairs.”

“Professor David Holloway in his excellent book, Stalin and the bomb, talks about how the pressures caused by the reality of nuclear war forced some leaders to take a different look at their orthodox communist views.”

“The book discusses how Khrushchev hoped Kennedy would become president, believing he might be another Franklin Roosevelt and could foster a better relationship.”

“part three of the destroyer of worlds the people from the Bertrand russell side of the evolve to deal with our weapons technology debate would say that the problem here is the game itself is too dangerous because it involves brinkmanship.”

“The Kennedy administration is famous for one of the biggest changes in all of nuclear history of something called flexible response.”

“A new look at the security strategy when it came to using nuclear weapons right at a time when Kennedy's up against a guy who is every bit as good of a bluffer as Eisenhower was.”

“I just read a whole book on that that says for the entire time nuclear weapons have been around, everyone has underestimated the most dangerous part of them, which is the fires that they start.”

“Kennedy was handing out a best-selling book to his subordinates during this period, and you've probably read it. It was Barbara Tuchman's, the Guns of August. It's a book, of course, that deals with the run-up to the First World War.”

“This according to Sheldon M. Stern, by the way, when Secretary of State Dean Rusk, said, I hope so. See you in the morning. I hope so.”

“As H.W. Brands points out it, he's writing a book about sort of political theory, but he points out how this changes the entire equation from anything we ever had in previous history.”

“In his book, An Unfinished Life about John F. Kennedy, presidential biographer Robert Dallick quotes Robert Kennedy, the president's brother, who was in the room with them during the crisis moment.”

“As Michael Dobbs points out in a great line, he said Khrushchev did indeed blink, but he blinked 30 hours before, and it took that long for Washington to see it.”

“The excerpt mentions Bertrand Russell's comment about the stress of leadership and decision-making in high-stakes situations.”

“The excerpt references Herman Kahn's concept of a 'red button' not connected to anything, discussing the implications of power and decision-making.”

“Michael Dobbs' great book, One Minute to Midnight, about the Cuban Missile Crisis. He does a great job of layering the many things that are in play at any given time and putting it into a context so it's got this minute-by-minute feel.”