Arsenals of folly
the making of the nuclear arms race
by Richard Rhodes · first published 2007
50% recommend25% neutral25% critical
The story of the postwar superpower arms race, climaxing during the Reagan-Gorbachev decade. Drawing on a wealth of new documentation, Rhodes reveals how the Reagan administration's unprecedented arms buildup in the early 1980s led Soviet leader Andropov to conclude that Reagan must be preparing for a nuclear war. In 1983, when NATO staged a larger than usual series of field exercises, the Soviet military came very close to launching a defensive first strike. Then Reagan launched the arms-reduction campaign of his second presidential term and set the stage for his 1986 summit with Gorbachev in
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Richard Rhodes book "The Arsenals of Folly" covers the lead up to the fall of the Soviet Union from the perspective of the leaders negotiating to reduce levels of nuclear weapons. It also covers some of the fundamental economic problems the Soviets…
on “The 2 Simple Reasons the Soviet Union Was Doomed to Fail” ↗"Arsenals of Folly" By Richard Rhodes is one of the best records of the Gorbachev era with respect to negotiations over arms reductions with Reagan (which resulted in a highly fractured US administration, with opponents…
on “Mikhail Gorbachev has died” ↗It's the secondary effects that would likely cause this. Having read a good deal about the Chernobyl (Rhodes, Arsenals of Folly) and Fukushima disasters, basically it's the loss of coolant in the reactor cores and the evaporation of water from the cooling ponds for the 'spent' (i.e. too hot to handle) reactor fuel that lead to…
on “Nukes, nubs and coners: The unique social hierarchy aboard a nuclear submarine” ↗There have been hints that a number of politicians who might have had to issue a retaliation order might have refused to do so from purely moral reasons. In Richard Rhodes Arsenals of Folly a close adviser to Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying: "I think deep down he doubted that he could bring himself to strike another country with [nuclear weapons]" Somewhat to my surprise, I'm from the…
on “Ex-Minuteman missile officer: I could have faked a global missile launch order” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83 However, to his credit he learned from this mistake and decided to take a less confrontational line with the Soviets - a change that he deserves a lot of credit for. Edit: See "Arsenals of Folly" by Richard Rhodes.
on “Trump presidency rated among top 10 global risks: EIU” ↗Richard Rhodes writes about these subject in 'The Making of Hydrogen Bomb' and 'Arsenals of Folly', but I wouldn't summarize it the way you did...
on “Manhattan Project: Australian physicist alerted Britain to US secrecy plan” ↗Richard Rhodes had a particular axe to grind. I would suggest looking at Atcheson and primary sources before Rhodes. You are also mixing titles - Making of the Atomic Bomb, Dark Sun and Arsenals of Folly. Making of the Atomic Bomb is amazing... but also bone chilling when you realize that scientists were basically advocating a dictatorship of technocrats.
on “Manhattan Project: Australian physicist alerted Britain to US secrecy plan” ↗