Nuclear America: Military and Civilian Nuclear Power in the United States, 1940-1980

The authors provide a comprehensive history of United States nuclear policy from 1940 to 1980 from both military and civilian perspectives. Beginning with the development of the atomic bomb, the first atomic tests and an examination of what Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin and their advisers thought about the use of the bomb, they cover the summit meetings at Yalta and Potsdam, the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission, the hydrogen bomb and Eisenhower's policy of massive retaliation and the escalation of the arms race. They also discuss the uses of atoms for peace, the development of nuclear reactors, public awareness of the dangers of nuclear accidents; the policies of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter and their defense secretaries, and arms limitation agreements. ISBN 0-06-015336-9 : $19.95.