Noel Malcolm:Bosnia : A Short History :
- Taschenbuch 2015, ISBN: 9780814755617
Stanford University Press. Very Good. 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d). Paperback. 2015. 276 pages. <br>My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's effor… Mehr…
Stanford University Press. Very Good. 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d). Paperback. 2015. 276 pages. <br>My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's efforts to keep the world safe from a nucle ar catastrophe. It tells the story of his coming of age in the nu clear era, his role in trying to shape and contain it, and how hi s thinking has changed about the threat these weapons pose. In a remarkable career, Perry has dealt firsthand with the changing nuclear threat. Decades of experience and special access to top-s ecret knowledge of strategic nuclear options have given Perry a u nique, and chilling, vantage point from which to conclude that nu clear weapons endanger our security rather than securing it. Th is book traces his thought process as he journeys from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to crafting a defense strategy in the Carter Admi nistration to offset the Soviets' numeric superiority in conventi onal forces, to presiding over the dismantling of more than 8,000 nuclear weapons in the Clinton Administration, and to his creati on in 2007, with George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and Henry Kissinger, of the Nuclear Security Project to articulate their vision of a wor ld free from nuclear weapons and to lay out the urgent steps need ed to reduce nuclear dangers. Editorial Reviews 10/05/2015 Per ry, more technocrat than politician, emphasizes his efforts to pr event nuclear war in this sincere and nontriumphalist memoir. Per ry, an early Silicon Valley CEO, served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Carter administration , before returning to the private sector during the 1980s. Perry was recalled to government service during the Clinton Administrat ion, briefly as Undersecretary of Defense (1993-1994) and then Se cretary of Defense (1994-1997); he carried out the Nunn-Lugar pro gram, which dismantled thousands of nuclear weapons in Belarus, K azakhstan, and Ukraine. In 1996, Russian troops served under an A merican commander as peacekeepers in Bosnia, marking (in Perry's blunt assessment) the high point in the possibility of a nuclear- free world. Then, despite his protests, NATO admitted the three B altic states and began the early processing of Georgia and Ukrain e for membership, enraging Russia. Since that time, Russia, under the pugnacious Vladimir Putin, has expanded its nuclear arsenal just as the alarmingly unpredictable nations of North Korea and P akistan have further developed their nuclear capabilities. The ob ligatory how-to-fix-it conclusion is not encouraging, failing to go beyond vague tactics such as education of the public. Perry's admirable memoir is a disturbing reminder that the danger of nucl ear war did not disappear with the collapse of the Soviet Union. (Dec.) - Publishers Weekly William Perry's dedicated service to our nation spans generations, and this remarkable book documents a lifetime of achievements that have made America stronger and sa fer. In these pages, you will have an insider's look at the acute tensions of the Cold War and the expansive opportunities that em erged when it ended. Dr. Perry's experiences demonstrate why we m ust do everything we can to reduce the dangers of nuclear prolife ration. You will be inspired by the impact that one gifted indivi dual can have on the most pressing national security challenges t hat we face. - Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall Bill Perry has the highest A to E ratio (accomplishments to ego) of anyone I have e ver known. His vision and foresight have made America safer, stro nger and more secure. He has lived General Omar Bradley's dictum: 'The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts .' Everyone interested in protecting the future of our nation and planet should read this book and learn from Bill's experience. - Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative - Former Senator Sa m Nunn In clear, detailed but powerful prose, Perry's new book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, tells the story of his seventy-y ear experience of the nuclear age. Beginning with his firsthand e ncounter with survivors living amid 'vast wastes of fused rubble' in the aftermath of World War II, his account takes us up to tod ay when Perry is on an urgent mission to alert us to the dangerou s nuclear road we are traveling. - The New York Review of Books - Jerry Brown William Perry's dedicated service to our nation spa ns generations, and this remarkable book documents a lifetime of achievements that have made America stronger and safer. In these pages, you will have an insider's look at the acute tensions of t he Cold War and the expansive opportunities that emerged when it ended. Dr. Perry's experiences demonstrate why we must do everyth ing we can to reduce the dangers of nuclear proliferation. You wi ll be inspired by the impact that one gifted individual can have on the most pressing national security challenges that we face. - From the Publisher 2015-09-03 A methodical memoir of a long, to p-level government career developing nuclear deterrence strategy. The former secretary of defense during President Bill Clinton's first term, as well as an accomplished Stanford University schola r, Perry straightforwardly tracks his life's journey in terms of a growing awareness that the only defense against nuclear attack is to prevent the attack from happening. Too young to serve in Wo rld War II, the Pennsylvania-born math whiz was barely 18 when he enlisted as an Army engineer and observed firsthand the bombing devastation of postwar Japan. The rise of the Soviet missile thre at defined his early years of graduate work at Stanford, which we re followed by a job as a senior scientist at Sylvania's Electron ic Defense Laboratories. An original entrepreneur in Silicon Vall ey with his own company, Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory, and dedicated to Cold War intelligence work using new digital technol ogy, Perry was plucked by Harold Brown to serve as his undersecre tary of defense for research and engineering in 1977. He graduall y began to see that the old way of thinking about keeping up with the Soviets and ensuring an offset strategy was outdated, a colo ssal failure of imagination. What was needed was diplomacy--e.g., dealing with China, NATO, and Israel-Egyptian peace talks at Cam p David. A critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star W ars, Perry actively participated in nongovernmental international diplomacy, Track II, to develop new paths of understanding with Russian scientists and academics. When he returned to Washington, D.C., in 1993, Perry was in a unique position to deal with the d ismantling of nuclear weapons left as the legacy of the Cold War, enforced by Nunn-Lugar legislation. Perry recounts tackling one containment crisis after another during his tenure, from North Ko rea to Bosnia to Haiti. Having worked so hard to neutralize the S oviet-U.S. relationship, Perry is especially anguished at the new tension with Putin's Russia. Not an exciting account but a solid record of a terrifically significant public career. - Kirkus Rev iews Perry has long been one of the more strenuous advocates for confronting the dangers of the nuclear age, and his engaging mem oir explains why. - Foreign Affairs - Lawrence D. Freedman Perry 's authoritative memoir...is a clear, sobering and, for many, sur prising warning that the danger of a nuclear catastrophe today is actually greater than it was during that era of U.S.-Soviet comp etition.a significant and insightful memoir and a necessary read. - U.S. News & World Report - Mortimer B. Zuckerman ., Stanford University Press, 2015, 3, New York University Press, 1996. Paperback. Good. Disclaimer:Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed., New York University Press, 1996, 2.5<
