The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

Fred Kaplan is the world's preeminent Dr. Strangelove-whisperer, and The Bomb is the smartest, most riveting, and up-to-date history of how US leaders, military and civilian, have thought the unthinkable. The chapter on Trump and nuclear weapons is nothing less than alarming. --Timothy Naftali, author of George H.W. Bush and co-author of Khrushchev's Cold War With its stunning, new, in-the-room revelations, and with Fred Kaplan's deep knowledge of nuclear strategy, The Bomb is the best overview yet of the world's continuing struggle to come to terms with the threat of nuclear war. --Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Arsenals of Folly The Bomb is like the Pentagon Papers for U.S. nuclear strategy. Kaplan has the insider stories of an investigative journalist, the analytic rigor of a political scientist, and the longer-term perspective of a historian. Insightful and important. --SCOTT Sagan, professor of political science at Stanford University and chairman of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences' Committee on International Security Studies With powerful anecdotes and a wealth of historical detail, Fred Kaplan tells the story of the men and women who found themselves both appalled and entranced by the fearful, mad logic of nuclear war from the aftermath of Hiroshima to the present day. The Bomb is a frightening but necessary read. --Rosa Brooks, author of How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon In The Bomb, Fred Kaplan has delivered a timely, lively, highly readable account of how Presidents from Truman to Trump have prepared for nuclear war--a history that is as deeply informed as it is utterly alarming. --Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars and Directorate S