Since the first atomic bomb was exploded in 1945, a close community of civilian experts, including scientists, academics, and think-tank intellectuals, has advised the American government on the prospects of nuclear war. Based on interviews with these experts, as well as hundreds of pages of recently declassified documents, Counsels of War is the first book to trace in detail the deliberations and shifting recommendations of the experts on the bomb from Hiroshima to "Star Wars." Gregg Herken writes about the people whose profession it has been to think about the unthinkable--Robert McNamara, Paul Nitze, Herman Kahn, Bernard Brodie--including their intense rivalries, personal animosities, and often contentious relationship with the professional military. He reveals how the influence of the scientist and strategist has extended well beyond the laboratory and the classroom--in the proposal of Kennedy's advisers for a nuclear "demonstration" and even a "clever first-strike" against the Russians, for example. Counsels of War also shatters certain popular assumptions about U.S. nuclear policy. As Herken points out, while American doctrine stresses "retaliation," U.S. strategists have always planned to "pre-empt" a Soviet attack. Herken shows that the lines in the current nuclear debate were actually drawn at the dawn of the atomic age, and that the experts' technically abstruse arguments have only served to hide from the public the fundamental, deeply held--and quite subjective--differences at the heart of the debate. Since Hiroshima, there has been a growing awareness of the peril created by nuclear weapons, yet the crucial questions that were never adequately addressed in 1945 unanswered today. Given the inability of the experts to confront the essential dilemma of the nuclear age, Counsels of War calls for a new nuclear debate, one focused on American rather than Soviet intentions and that seeks an answer to the fundamental, yet still unresolved question: What are these weapons for?

Counsels of War (Oxford Paperbacks)

History

Herken, Gregg

Military

Oxford University Press

In 1939, physicist Leo Szilard worked desperately to convince the U.S. government to build an atomic bomb. It was Szilard who drafted the famous letter to President Roosevelt, signed by Albert Einstein, on the need to beat Germany in the race for nuclear weapons. But by 1942, with the Manhattan project underway, he already feared that the bomb had taken on a life of its own. Those "who originated the work on this terrible weapon," he argued, had the responsibility to see that it was used "at the proper time and in the proper way." Szilard was ignored--those who built the bomb had little impact on the decision to drop it. But the struggle by scientists to influence weapons policy has continued, down to today's X-ray lasers and SDI. In Cardinal Choices, Smithsonian historian Gregg Herken provides a fascinating history of the tangled relations between the scientific community and the White House in the nuclear age. Ever since the first nuclear detonation at Trinity Site in New Mexico, 1945, the White House has depended on the technical expertise of scientists as it makes decisions that could affect the survival of the planet. Herken begins with a gripping account of the origins of the Manhattan project, following its growth into a permanent nuclear weapons establishment. He paints precise portraits of the complex personalities at the heart of the ongoing drama, from Robert Oppenheimer's remorse over the bomb he had aggressively pushed forward, to Edward Teller's relentless pursuit of the "Super" (the hydrogen bomb), to President Eisenhower's ambivalence about the mushrooming arms race. And Herken goes behind the scenes in the White House to explore the impact of new and proposed technologies, including the U-2 spy plane, the electronic gadgets poured into Vietnam, and the nuclear explosion-powered X-ray lasers planned for SDI. At the heart of the story is the tension between the experts and the politicians in the making of the "cardinal choices." Herken traces the rise and fall of advisory bodies, from Truman's Science Advisory Committee to Reagan's Office of Science and Technology Policy, as scientists have sought to influence policy, and as presidents have alternated between seeking out their advice and resisting or ignoring it. The record, he writes, "suggests that the question 'Who advises?' is hardly less important than that of 'Who governs?'" Now, no less than at the height of the Cold War, it is critically important that the president gets sound advice on scientific issues. Cardinal Choices offers a brilliant history of how the White House has been advised over the last fifty years, providing new insight into the role scientists should play in the future.

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDIA Twentieth Century Fund Book (20th Century Fund Book)

Science & Math

A fascinating, behind-the-scenes history of postwar Washington—a rich and colorful portrait of the close-knit group of journalists, spies, and government officials who waged the Cold War over cocktails and dinner. In the years after World War II, Georgetown’s leafy streets were home to an unlikely group of Cold Warriors: a coterie of affluent, well-educated, and connected civilians who helped steer American strategy from the Marshall Plan through McCarthyism, Watergate, and the endgame of Vietnam. The Georgetown set included Phil and Kay Graham, husband-and-wife publishers of The Washington Post; Joe and Stewart Alsop, odd-couple brothers who were among the country’s premier political pundits; Frank Wisner, a driven, manic-depressive lawyer in charge of CIA covert operations; and a host of other diplomats, spies, and scholars responsible for crafting America’s response to the Soviet Union from Truman to Reagan. This was a smaller, cozier Washington—utterly unlike today’s capital—where presidents made foreign policy in consultation with reporters and professors over martinis and hors d’oeuvres, and columnists like the Alsops promoted those policies in the next day’s newspapers. Together, they navigated the perilous years of the Cold War, yielding triumphs—and tragedies—with very real consequences for present-day America and the world. Gregg Herken captures their successes and failures and gives us intimate portraits of these dedicated and talented, if deeply flawed, individuals. Throughout, he illuminates the drama of those years, bringing this remarkable roster of men and women and their world not only out into the open but vividly to life.

The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington

Americas

KNOPF

In the years after World War II, Georgetown’s leafy streets were home to an unlikely group of Cold Warriors who helped shape American strategy. This coterie of affluent, well-educated, and connected civilians guided the country, for better and worse, from the Marshall Plan through McCarthyism, Watergate, and Vietnam. The Georgetown set included Phil and Kay Graham, husband-and-wife publishers of The Washington Post; Joe and Stewart Alsop, odd-couple brothers who were among the country’s premier political pundits; Frank Wisner, a driven, manic-depressive lawyer in charge of CIA covert operations; and a host of other diplomats, spies, and scholars. Gregg Herken gives us intimate portraits of these dedicated and talented, if deeply flawed, individuals, who navigated the Cold War years (often over cocktails and dinner) with very real consequences reaching into the present day. Throughout, he illuminates the drama and fascination of that noble, congenial, curious old world,” in Joe Alsop’s words, bringing this remarkable roster of men and women not only out into the open but vividly to life.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

This book makes clear how, and why, after World War II American diplomats tried to make the atom bomb a winning weapon," an absolute advantage in negotiations with the Soviet Union. But this policy failed utterly in the 1948 Berlin crisis, and at home the State Department opposed those scientists who advocated international cooperation on nuclear matters.
Originally published in 1988.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950

Princeton University Press

The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950 (Princeton Legacy Library)

This book makes clear how, and why, after World War II American diplomats tried to make the atom bomb a winning weapon", an absolute advantage in negotiations with the Soviet Union. But this policy failed utterly in the 1948 Berlin crisis, and at home the State Department opposed those scientists who advocated international cooperation on nuclear matters. Originally published in 1988. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book makes clear how, and why, after World War II American diplomats tried to make the atom bomb a winning weapon," an absolute advantage in negotiations with the Soviet Union. But this policy failed utterly in the 1948 Berlin crisis, and at home the State Department opposed those scientists who advocated international cooperation on nuclear matters.Originally published in 1988.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI. Revised and Expanded Edition (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)

This book is a history of the complex relations between scientific advisors, primarily physicists, and U.S. presidents in their role as decision makers about nuclear weapons and military strategy. The story, unsurprisingly, is one of considerable tension between the "experts" and the politicians, as scientists seek to influence policy and presidents alternate between accepting their advice and resisting or even ignoring it. First published in 1992, the book has been brought up to date to include the experiences of science advisors to President Clinton. In addition, the texts of eleven crucial documents, from the Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt (1939) to the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative by President Reagan (1983), have been added as appendixes.

Leone, Richard C.

Stanford University Press

This book is a history of the complex relations between scientific advisors, primarily physicists, and U.S. presidents in their role as decision makers about nuclear weapons and military strategy. The story, unsurprisingly, is one of considerable tension between the "experts" and the politicians, as scientists seek to influence policy and presidents alternate between accepting their advice and resisting or even ignoring it. First published in 1992, the book has been brought up to date to include the experiences of science advisors to President Clinton. In addition, the texts of eleven crucial documents, from the Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt (1939) to the announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative by President Reagan (1983), have been added as appendixes.

The fascinating story of the men who founded the nuclear age, fully told for the first time The story of the twentieth century is largely the story of the power of science and technology. Within that story is the incredible tale of the human conflict between Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller-the scientists most responsible for the advent of weapons of mass destruction. How did science-and its practitioners-enlisted in the service of the state during the Second World War, become a slave to its patron during the Cold War? The story of these three men, builders of the bombs, is fundamentally about loyalty-to country, to science, and to each other-and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict. Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and newly released Freedom of Information Act and Russian documents. Brotherhood of the Bomb is a vital slice of American history told authoritatively-and grippingly-for the first time.

Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Henry Holt and Co.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herken, Gregg. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Herken, Gregg

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Herken, Gregg. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Counsels of War (Oxford Paperbacks)

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDIA Twentieth Century Fund Book (20th Century Fund Book)

The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington

The Georgetown Set: Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington

The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950

The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950 (Princeton Legacy Library)

The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950 (Princeton Legacy Library)

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI. Revised and Expanded Edition (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)

Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI. Revised and Expanded Edition (Stanford Nuclear Age Series)

Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller