The Cold War introduced new military arsenal, weapons of mass destruction. The United States and the Soviet Union invested billions of dollars into the development of sophisticated and destructive weapons. Creating a dangerous military arsenal became another objective. After the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb. This book examines how nuclear proliferation and the arms race influenced the trajectory of the Cold War.

A global leader of the antinuclear movement delivers “a meticulous, urgent, and shocking report” on US weapons policy and the imminent dangers it poses (Booklist). First published in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, The New Nuclear Danger sounded the alarm against a neoconservative foreign policy dictated by weapons manufacturers. This revised and updated edition includes a new introduction that outlines the costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom, details the companies profiting from the war and subsequent reconstruction, and chronicles the rampant conflicts of interest among members of the Bush administration who also had a financial stake in weapons manufacturing. Named one of the Most Influential Women of the 20th Century by the Smithsonian and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her antinuclear activism, Dr. Helen Caldicott’s expert assessment of US nuclear and military policy is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the precarious state of the world. After eight printings in the original edition, The New Nuclear Danger remains a singularly persuasive argument for a new approach to foreign policy and a new path toward arms reduction. “A timely warning, at a critical moment in world history, of the horrible consequences of nuclear warfare.” —Walter Cronkite

E.L. Doctorow suggested that in the years since 1945 the nuclear bomb has come to compose the identity of the American people. Developing this theme, Hugh Gusterson shows how the military-industrial complex has transformed public culture & personal psychology in America, to create a nuclear people.

Following the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the twentieth century was haunted by the specter of nuclear annihilation. Locked in a hostile embrace, the U.S. and the USSR engaged in a ruinous arms race preparing for the kind of war no one wanted and no one could win. Though the Cold War ended, the dangers of nuclear proliferation remain, with poorly secured nuclear weapons and materials vulnerable to theft, sale, accident, or misuse. The many debates over the years surrounding the arms race, proliferation, deterrence, and security are collected here to provide readers with a fine-grained sense of the international tensions, political urgency, diplomatic strategies, and global fears that have long underlined the effort to build and maintain nuclear arsenals.