The Bomb cover art

The Bomb

Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

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The Bomb

By: Fred Kaplan
Narrated by: Edward Bauer
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About this listen

 From the author of the classic The Wizards of Armageddon and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes the definitive history of American policy on nuclear war—and several presidents’ actions in nuclear crises—from Truman to Trump.

Fred Kaplan, hailed by The New York Times as “a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter,” takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “Tank” in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of Strategic Command to bring us the untold stories—based on exclusive interviews and previously classified documents—of how America’s presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, broached, and just barely avoided nuclear war from the dawn of the atomic age until today.

Kaplan’s historical research and deep reporting will stand as the permanent record of politics, the military history of nuclear weapons, and the struggles within the Department of Defense and the Pentagon strategies. Discussing theories that have dominated nightmare scenarios from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Kaplan presents the unthinkable in terms of mass destruction and demonstrates how the nuclear war reality will not go away, regardless of the dire consequences. Military Military Policy Nuclear War Politics & Government Weapons & Warfare War American Foreign Policy Vietnam War Socialism Nuclear Weapons

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All stars
Most relevant
This book looked at the politics behind the use of nuclear weapons, and moreover the men and women who would decide to use them, and against whom. I enjoyed this alternate view very much. normally i like technical accounts of the weapons development, but this is a very interesting listen.

An alternative to the usual historical views

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Very interesting and at times shocking! How close we have been to total annihilation and how crazy the planners where..

If you find the cold war interesting, this book should be on your list.

Shocking

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This is the best book on american/global politics I have ever read/listen. I deeply thank the author.

amazing!

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The book starts of very well giving a detailed history of the weapon. However it also manages to become very partisan toward the final portion of the book which is totally unnecessary and makes it very difficult to listen to.

Average

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The fist few chapters were okay, although it reads (/listens) as if aimed at adolescents - the language is casual, lazy and mediocre, and indeed, the narrator doesn't help this impression. When we reach the Bush Jnr years, the author's mask slips, and what unfolds is a highly partisan political fluffing. Without resorting to vulgarity (and it's not easy in this instance), the author's, ahem, veneration of Barack Hussein Obama is truly nauseating. Coverage of the Trump years was insulting to anyone who spent money on this audiobook on the assumption it was an actual history. Kaplan oozes poison on Trump, and any pretence of professionalism is replaced with demeaning (to both the author and the listener) and childish barbs and rants.

I couldn't recommend this book. It most certainly should not be classified as history. Not only is it not worth an Audible credit, it wouldn't be worth the bandwidth to download it if it were free.

Partisan politics, not history

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