The Twilight of the Bombs

Starred review from June 28, 2010
In this absorbing conclusion to his chronicle of the nuclear age, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) describes the post–Cold War shift in the status of nuclear weapons from existential menace to alarming but tractable police problem. He focuses on attempts by the U.S. and the international community to squelch proliferation threats: efforts by UN inspectors to unearth and dismantle Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program; white-knuckle negotiations over North Korea's bomb-making project; initiatives to return the defunct Soviet Union's nukes to Russia and keep its unemployed atomic scientists from getting into mischief; the campaign to convince non-nuclear states to stay that way through a permanent non-proliferation treaty. Rhodes makes the technical issues lucid and accessible, and the tale also has intrigue and suspense, heroes (Jimmy Carter) and villains (the Bush administration). It's a story of deceit, corrupt politics, and diplomatic half-measures, but also of improbable outbreaks of common sense and far-sightedness as doomsday stockpiles are bargained downward and nations grudgingly abandon nuclear ambitions. Rhodes shows us the heartening spectacle of humanity slowly turning away from the abyss. Photos.

June 1, 2010

The foremost historian of the birth, growth and spread of nuclear weapons examines developments in the post–Cold War era.

Since the publication of The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1987), which won nearly every major book award, Rhodes (Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, 2007, etc.) has owned the story of nuclear weapons. If this concluding volume in his nuclear history is slightly less impressive than its predecessors, it may only be that we're still too close to the events for any observer, even one as informed and eloquent as the author, to finally judge all that has unfolded during the past two decades. A series of set-pieces brings the story up to date—South Africa's pursuit and eventual dismantling of its nuclear arsenal, the Clinton administration's negotiations with North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program and the arms race between Pakistan and India. Rhodes devotes the bulk of the narrative, however, to two stories: Iraq's secret bomb program under Saddam Hussein—and the costly miscalculations that led to the second Gulf War—and the era's signature event, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the mostly successful attempt to secure the Soviet nuclear arsenal as republics within the old empire declared independence. The author approvingly quotes an expert who calls the removal of nuclear weapons from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan "the single most important accomplishment of the 1990s." Although Rhodes includes a section on the frightening potential for nuclear terrorism, he delivers a surprisingly upbeat verdict on the future, noting that "more nations gave up their nuclear ambitions during the 1990s than sought to acquire those weapons of terror and mass death," and predicting that within his grandchildren's lifetimes "possession of a nuclear weapon will be judged a crime against humanity."

A skillful assessment of the transformation of nuclear weapons from the so-called guardians of our security during the Cold War to the burden and catastrophic threat they pose today.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2010

Pulitzer Prize-winning atomic weapons historian Rhodes (The Making of the Atom Bomb) completes his quartet on the history of nuclear weapons with this volume that picks up with the end of the Cold War in 1991. Rhodes takes us on a painstakingly researched trip through many nuclear hot spots, including former Soviet republics as well as Iraq, South Africa, and North Korea, next delving into where we stand today and musing about what the future might bring. Throughout, his aim is to remind us of post-Cold War nuclear dangers. He engages us by weaving the fascinating true stories of inspectors finding hidden nuclear stockpiles, how negotiations have variously played out (how Jimmy Carter allegedly saved the United States from possible war with North Korea), and the rationales nations have used for stockpiling nuclear weapons, including prestige and their use as bargaining chips so as to be heard by the United States. VERDICT Nuclear weapons are of major concern worldwide, and Rhodes is an expert in his field. His clear, thoughtful writing makes this title an essential read for those who want to stay informed about global nuclear politics, even though he appears to have completed writing without including Iran in his discussions.--Krista Bush, West Haven, CT

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
In his fourth title in a series initiated by the definitive The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), Rhodes chronicles most but not all major developments related to nuclear weaponry since the cold war ended. Impassioned by his conviction that the atomic bomb confers an illusory sense of security and poses so dire a hazard to humanity that it must be abolished, Rhodes writes journalistically rather than in the more historical manner that characterized this books important and widely read predecessors. He interviews politicians, diplomats, and technicians involved in nuclear disarmament over the past two decades and explains such activities as inspections of sites or negotiations of significant international accords such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and agreements between the U.S. and Russia to safeguard nuclear weapons and fissile material. After an interlude about the South African bomb, Rhodes narrates crises with a nuclear angle that were actually or potentially a peril to people at large, namely the Gulf War of 199091, the Pakistan/India test explosions of 1998, the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and North Koreas nuclear weapons. Yet Rhodes discussion of the latter is curiously incomplete, relating nothing (beyond blame-Bush aspersions) about how the so-called Agreed Framework brokered by Jimmy Carter in 1994 fell apart under North Korean prevarication and deception. And conspicuously absent from this book is the dangerous nuclear crisis of the moment: Iran. Regardless of omissions, Rhodes formidable nuclear knowledge, readably presented, will convey his moral opposition to nuclear deterrence to a sizable audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)