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We are at a critical juncture in world politics. Nuclear strategy and policy have risen to the top of the global policy agenda, and issues ranging from a nuclear Iran to the global zero movement are generating sharp debate. The historical origins of our contemporary nuclear world are deeply consequential for contemporary policy, but it is crucial that decisions are made on the basis of fact rather than myth and misapprehension. In Nuclear Statecraft, Francis J. Gavin challenges key elements of the widely accepted narrative about the history of the atomic age and the consequences of the nuclear revolution. On the basis of recently declassified documents, Gavin reassesses the strategy of flexible response, the influence of nuclear weapons during the Berlin Crisis, the origins of and motivations for U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy, and how to assess the nuclear dangers we face today. In case after case, he finds that we know far less than we think we do about our nuclear history. Archival evidence makes it clear that decision makers were more concerned about underlying geopolitical questions than about the strategic dynamic between two nuclear superpowers. Gavin's rigorous historical work not only tells us what happened in the past but also offers a powerful tool to explain how nuclear weapons influence international relations. Nuclear Statecraft provides a solid foundation for future policymaking.
Concern has grown in recent years about Europe's dependence on nuclear weapons for its security. The credibility of the current NATO strategy of flexible response is being questioned. It is widely felt that NATO should strengthen its conventional force capability in order to raise the nuclear threshold. New developments in technology appear to offer hope that a main obstacle to an effective conventional defense against conventional attack, its cost, can at last be overcome. This report gives a wide overview of the implications of these developments. Concentrating on central Europe, it examines the question whether the continued maintenance of an effective strategy of deterrence requires a change in the relationship between the conventional and nuclear elements of it. It considers the adoption of a no-first-use policy buttressed by conventional force improvements large enough to create a permanent conventional force balance in Europe. The report concludes that improving conventional forces to the point of equivalence with the Warsaw Pact would risk decoupling the defense of Europe against conventional attack from the United States' nuclear umbrella and would thus reduce deterrence as well as damage the cohesion of the Alliance.
When Strategies of Containment was first published, the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and the Berlin Wall was still standing. This updated edition of Gaddis' classic carries the history of containment through the end of the Cold War. Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's postwar plans, Gaddis provides a thorough critical analysis of George F. Kennan's original strategy of containment, NSC-68, The Eisenhower-Dulles "New Look," the Kennedy-Johnson "flexible response" strategy, the Nixon-Kissinger strategy of detente, and now a comprehensive assessment of how Reagan - and Gorbechev - completed the process of containment, thereby bringing the Cold War to an end. He concludes, provocatively, that Reagan more effectively than any other Cold War president drew upon the strengths of both approaches while avoiding their weaknesses. A must-read for anyone interested in Cold War history, grand strategy, and the origins of the post-Cold War world.
Volume 2 of History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense, by Walter S. Poole. (See Volume 1, Rearming for the Cold War in Hardcover Print and eBook). Contains a history of the acquisition of major weapon systems by the United States armed forces from 1960 to 1968. Organized chronologically, with individual chapters addressing the new needs for flexibility in defense acquisition in response the rapidly changing security environment under two periods: the President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. Covers weapon acquisitions for the Vietnam War, and the rise of nuclear threats, strategic missile systems, military helicopters and nuclear submarines. Includes topics such as dissolving the link between incentives and profits, total package procurement, creation of Federal program managers, prototyping vs. component-based systems, and more.
Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.