Read e-book online Armageddon Postponed: A Different View of Nuclear Weapons PDF

within the last days of global battle II, scientists operating for the U.S. govt invented nuclear explosives by means of splitting the atoms of heavy metals. Germany had already surrendered, however the usa and its allies remained at warfare with Japan. in the summertime of 1945, the japanese urban of Hiroshima used to be flattened by way of a unmarried nuclear bomb. A moment bombing happened quite a few days later, decimating the town of Nagasaki. those have been the 1st nuclear guns ever utilized in warfare. And - to this point - they're the final. for the reason that then, tens of hundreds of thousands of nuclear guns were synthetic and deployed by means of governments all over the world. lots of those guns are even more strong than the atomic bombs that destroyed the 2 jap towns. None were used up to now, and the absence of nuclear struggle between countries armed to enamel with nuclear guns is a smart secret. whereas the specter of a nuclear assault at the usa has receded, the opportunity of a nuclear assault on an American urban by way of terrorists has taken its position in our respectable nightmares. thus far, no terrorist crew has made a significant attempt to shop for, thieve, or construct a nuclear weapon. The absence of nuclear terrorism in an international swarming with fanatical terrorists is one other nice secret. The slippery slope to a nuclear Armageddon has been current for greater than sixty years. In safe destinations in Washington, Moscow, Beijing, London, and Paris, there are buttons to push than may perhaps placed an finish to human civilization, yet those buttons have by no means been driven. Why no longer? What has thus far stored us secure from those mortal hazards? these are the questions that Caplow asks and solutions in Armageddon Postponed.