Book Description
The year 1982 was a desperate time for the U.S. defense community. The United States had no effective system to protect itself completely from a Soviet attack with nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, which the Soviet Union possessed in large quantity, and the doomsday philosophy of mutually assured destruction seemed inescapable. But people in the Reagan administration, including Reagan himself, were not content with what they viewed as a morally unacceptable status quo. Then Adm. James Watkins, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked, “Wouldn’t it be better if we could develop a system that would protect, rather than avenge, our people?” With that, the president’s commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) became certain. Ultimately, SDI reflected Western political idealism, a powerful ingredient in the struggle to finally conquer the terrors of the Cold War and to allay the threat of nuclear holocaust. The Star Wars Enigma tells this dramatic story.
Customer Reviews:
An Important Part of Recent History.......2006-11-15
At the time Reagan began the 'Star Wars' program it made such perfect sense to me that I was astounded when a number of my scientifically trained friends came out so against it. I simply couldn't believe that the MAD - Mutually Assured Desctruction - a concept based on fear of revenge was the best that we could do.
Over the years it became clear that regardless of its technical aspects, it was creating a basic impalance in the Soviet Union and in a way they couldn't compete. They simply didn't have the money, the computer skills, the electronic technology to compete. And if it worked it would remove their Strategic Rocket Forces as a threat. In the end, it was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This is the complete story, told from the standpoint of time of the SDI program. It discusses both the technological aspects, and the political. It's a story not well known, but an extremely important part of our recent history. It ended the Cold War.
Little known, and under different names, reaearch into defense against missiles has continued. Lots of people said that it wouldn't work. The Army persisted and attempted to shoot down missiles over the Pacific Missile Range. They failed, they failed, and again and again. Then they hit one. Then they hit another. It has taken a lot longer than planned. A lot of the very advanced technology hasn't come about. But now we can hit an incoming missile. Research is continuing.
This Is the Way the Cold War Ends.......2006-11-06
Author Nigel Hey revisits recent history in his entertaining and excellently researched narration of the Cold War's end. He examines the science -- or lack thereof -- economics and politics of the still controversial Strategic Defense Initiative -- "Star Wars." We find that the notion of a defense shield was Ronald Reagan's response to MAD -- mutual assured destruction. Reagan considered MAD dangerous, unstable and insane, exactly what the Soviets -- and many American critics -- thought of Reagan and his Star Wars concept. Hey presents careful analyses of all the key players from Sagdeev and Gorbachev to Teller, "Cap the Knife" Weinburger and George Shultz. He renders a surprising portrait of Ronald Reagan and his complex simplicity. Most importantly, Hey vividly explains the role that Star Wars played in the demise of the Cold War. And he reminds us how very dangerous those times were. The Star Wars Enigma is a rare blend of science, human nature, personalities, politics and history that makes for lively, thought-provoking reading.
Tony Fitzpatrick, science writer
Author of Signals from the Heartland, Walker and Company, New York
Place as a Historical Document.......2006-10-20
What a resourceful document on a subject that the general public knows so little about!!!!The author has detailed much little known research by the average person into an easy-to-read book for anyone who has interest in the Star Wars arena. It is an invaluble resource for students of USA/Soviet History; students in all of the War Colleges; National Defense University; or just in a general interest in history. It contains interesting anecdotal information and is not written in a strict academic style.
J. Willard Williams, Retired Director of Army Continuing Education
Book Description
In England, Irish-born citizens are being herded into prison camps. On the high seas, a furious British Navy is seizing American cargo ships bound for Europe. And on the Thames, a new weapon of unparalleled destructive force is sailing toward an impregnable city–spearheaded by a daring act of espionage. For U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, Britain’s Queen Victoria, Lord Palmerston, and a loyal opposition, a day of reckoning is at hand . . . and so is history’s most astounding battle.
Harry Harrison’s series of alternate history, based on the U.S. Civil War, stands as a provocative work of imagination, drama, and brilliant historical insight. Now in the thrilling finale, Harrison tells a stunning, action-packed story of America’s rapidly growing military might being locked, loaded, and aimed at the heart of England itself.
For the two countries that share a language and a heritage, the conflict began at the dawn of the U.S. Civil War. Just as America was about to tear itself to pieces, Britain itself committed an act of war by seizing a U.S. packet ship. In retaliation, the Confederate States rejoined the Union and took up arms against England. Repulsing a British invasion, and defeating her majesty’s army first in Canada, then in Mexico, then in Ireland, American pride and power swelled. Britain, like a wounded lion, howled in shame and anger. Now, Queen Victoria’s empire is more dangerous than ever before, turning against the Irish on her own soil, flexing her naval might, and all but forcing a weary President Lincoln to authorize the next step in a headlong journey toward war.
A tale of daring and strategy, Stars and Stripes Triumphant explores how arrogance turns superpowers into victims, how regional conflicts can explode into world wars, and how the personalities of a few men and women can change the course of history itself–for better or for worse.
Customer Reviews:
Triumphant Again!?!.......2007-05-14
Stars and Stripes Triumphant is the third book of a trilogy by Harry Harrison in which once again the Republic of the United States is threatened by a United Kingdom seeking revenge due to previous loses of her empire to the upstart colonial States. This third and final installment of the Stars and Strips Trilogy does have the excitement and detail as the other books of this trilogy; however, overall it suffers the fate as most series and sequels.
The first, Stars and Stripes Forever, detailed the abortive American Civil War, abruptly ended when the Union and Confederacy re-joined in order to stop a continental invasion by the British Empire. The US is Triumphant and also secures Canada into the ever growing list of Democratic Countries. The second, Stars and Stripes in Peril, described a British counterattack, followed by an American invasion of Ireland and a successful attempt to free that beleaguered nation from British misrule. Once Again, the US is Triumphant as well as adding another couple of Democratic Countries (Mexico & Ireland). In the third and final installment, Stars and Stripes Triumphant, Britain resorts to policies that did not work in the War of 1812 coupled with the forced incarceration of Irish peoples in Concentration Camps which capitulates into another War between Britain and the United States.
Like most of Harry Harrison's books, this is a very good read. He is a fine writer and is detail oriented. The concept, about a reunited America against a tyrannical Great Britain, is clever. European powers are not quite sure what to think of this New United States and the Republics that have been created since Re-unification. Assassination attempts, Historical Characters, Espionage, Inventions, Battles, & Philosophy are all part of this book (and series). Creating specific events based on what really did happen (in the real world) demonstrates that Harrison has put some historical thought into the series. The first part of this book basically provides background information that helps the reader with the later part of the book in which the invasion of Great Britain actually occurs. Like all of Harrison's books, the last few chapters deal with the aftermath of the climax, of which in this case, the outcome of an American invasion.
Although the fine detail helped the reader, there wasn't a lot of suspense. The reader, at least I did, knew the outcome of the battle(s), the climax, and of this "Alternate Earth" while reading the book. One could determine the fate of Great Britain without reading the last installment of the trilogy. Stars and Stripes Triumphant suffers from the same problem as Stars and Stripes in Peril, great detail and story; yet, the excitement and suspense were not there.
Besides the lack of suspense, some other concerns were characters. Although I enjoyed the idea of having some fantastic Historical Characters interact; these characters seemed one dimensional. Any character would have done just as well replacing these historical figures. The first part of the book is very detailed oriented to give the reader the basic idea of the European attitudes as well as a tour of the Great Britain coastline. Realize that this is an "Alternate" view of history; I can accept that major advances in weaponry as part of the Sci-Fi Genre which did not take away from the story. Who really knows what would have happened if this fictional war did occur; many advances in weaponry have occurred due to war and the crises that arises during war. My problem was the method of the espionage and the encounters with the Russian Count were somewhat unbelievable. There were so many "close calls" that after each one, it seemed a little far fetched. Lastly, this last installment of the trilogy seemed to lack the overall excitement of Stars and Stripes Forever; that is, the novelty was gone.
I have enjoyed Harry Harrison's Books in the past. His Eden Trilogy is a great series about an Alternate Earth in which Dinosaurs and Mammals evolve simultaneously; very detailed oriented, sound scientific ideas, and great characters. I would also recommend his Deathworld Trilogy; however, this trilogy suffers the same fate exactly as the Stars and Strips Trilogy; that is, the first book of each series, Deathworld and Stars & Strips Forever respectively, are the best books of the series.
If one is interested in Alternate Civil War books, I would suggest Harry Turtledove's "How Few Remain" & "Guns of the South", Robert Conrad's "1862", or Various Author's "Alternate Gettysburg's". However, if reading Turtledove's "How Few Remain", be prepared to read the next 3 installations concerning WWI & WWII between the Union and Confederate States on the North American Continent.
I would recommend this book as a good enjoyable read; however, realize that the unique idea created in the first installment is missing, there really isn't really a big threat to the Stars & Strips which will be Triumphant again. It is a feel good book in which the American Attitude and Philosophy has won.
1066 Redux.......2007-01-09
The aged, entrenched mentality of the 19th-century British Empire could certainly have overlooked some of the innovative weapons and tactics employed by the upstart United States after America successfully invaded Ireland. In conservative Britain, enemies might be seen everywhere, especially among the ex-pat Irish living among them. It wouldn't be an unnatural response to round them all up and "concentrate" them in camps where they could be watched more closely. The result would be a repressive society that had not yet come to terms with its military over-extension; a society that now felt safe at home; a society willing to use its powerful navy to interdict American ships, seize American cargos, and impress American sailors into service.
It is 1812 all over again, but this time America is mobilized and strong.
General William Tecumseh Sherman sees the writing on the wall and begins to lay plans for what he realizes is inevitable. When the time comes, he launches his invasion of England, which falls like a house of cards--like the Berlin Wall. American ironclads sail up the Thames. Scotland sees its chance, finally, and pulls away from England. It is all over very quickly. This is the way empires fall.
"Stars and Stripes Triumphant" is the one book in this series in which I wished that Harrison would have gone into a bit more detail regarding the political aftermath of the conquest of England. There are so many parallels throughout history, and universal lessons that are also playing themselves out in the world today. Would that the modern-day lessons of this series had been required reading at the Defense Department. Still, this final installment is entertaining and plausible.
Pathetic end to a truly dreadful series.......2006-06-21
I enjoyed everything else I have read from Harry Harrison, and am fascinated by alternative history, so I expected to like the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy. I didn't.
The three books in the series are:
Stars and Stripes Forever
Stars and Stripes in Peril
Stars and Stripes Triumphant.
The starting premise of the first book - Britain blundering into war with the North in the American civil war - is horrifying plausible, which is not surprising as this very nearly happened. However, the author then abandoned any attempt at either a realistic attempt to work through what might have happened, or to look sympathically at how the situation might have developed from the viewpoint of all sides. Instead, looking for a way to turn both the USA and CSA into heroes, he cast the Brits as incompetent and evil cretins who both sides could unite against.
The second book was round two, with Britain invading the US again and getting beaten again, and the US deciding to "liberate" Ireland. The third book is round three. Given what has previously happened, most of the second and third books are not as ludicrous as the first one - although there are still some pretty silly things - but the basic premise still takes the course of the story too far away from anything which could realistically have happened in our world to work as alternative history.
Like the first two novels in the series, this book is basically written for people like the idea of presenting Americans as idealistic wonderful heroes, including those who in real history fought to preserve slavery, and British people as caricatures of evil idiots.
Harry Harrison is almost the last writer on earth I would have expected to prostitute his considerable talents with such chauvinistic rubbish as the Stars and Stripes trilogy. One-sided nationalism is not usually his style, and he has written another book about a set of events which might have changed the course of the US Civil War/War between the States - "Rebel in Time" - which is far superior to this.
For anyone who is looking for a good account of how the American Civil war might have gone wrong, try Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South," or "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" and "American Empire" trilogies which follow it. Or indeed Harry Harrison's "Rebel in Time".
Readable nonsense.......2005-09-13
"So, Mr Ericsson, what marvel do you have for us today?" General Sherman enquired.
"Well, Cumph - you don't mind me calling you Cumph do you? Everyone else in the books seems to do so." Ericsson replied.
"Of course not dear chap - we're all on first name terms here."
Well, then - my latest engineering marvel I term the stealth bomber. I was going to come up with some ridiculous name from Norse mythology but I got tired of constantly getting knocked back by those egg-heads in the Department of War."
"Mr Ericsson - you've quite outdone yourself this time."
"Not at all Cumph - those Wright boys were taking too long to get born and all so I just sped things along a little" Ericsson proudly claimed.
"And what is this peculiar contraption" General Grant queried?
"Well Sir, make that Ulysses, that is something I just knocked up in my spare time. I call it a Global Positioning System - or GPS if you prefer. You remember those extra large firecrackers I let off awhile back? They are what make this thing possible. No more risk of landing in the wrong place like those stupid Brits whom we all thoroughly detest because they are without exception arrogant and obnoxious, unlike our good selves. This little device will tell you exactly where you are in the world to within a few feet."
"Well, that will really reinforce the new American hegemony" said Sherman. "Time to teach those blasted English another lesson and still be home in time for tea. Thank goodness those race disruptions seemed to entirely disappear after the shooting of old Jeff Davis. Funny how spiriting away the perpetrator ended the whole thing without another peep but I ain't one to complain."
"Hooray for the good old USA!"
And the three of them, the two old warhorses and the Swedish engineer - but Americans all - rode off into the sunset together.
A little excerpt from the fourth book of the series??? No, but it almost could be. Having just finished the series I found it to be readable and moderately entertaining, if not increasingly implausible by the rate of military advances and infrastrature and materiel development. But more bothersome was the unremitting negative stereotypical portrayal of the English. It almot got too much to bear.
Interesting idea brought to the painful ending..........2005-08-17
The reason this book gets four stars is because Harry Harrison did such a good job of building the foundation of the story. He deals not just with the USA and England, but on how the European nations were dealing with the events, past and present. A shot is not fired in anger till about page 128. And even after the war there are chapters and chapters of post-war events to tie it all up. Now if only the events and characters of the conflict were as realistic as the logic he used to set it up. But if you've stayed with the series up to this third and last book you are already use to the grand and sweeping scenes that keep the plot moving. Now I know the reason for the trilogy - Mr. Harrison wanted to find a way to free Ireland and Scotland!
The plot drives the book, like the last two, and logic be damned.
Fun, but that's all.
Book Description
Space has been militarized for over four decades. Should it now be weaponized? This incisive and insightful book argues that it should not.
Since the cold war, space has come to harbor many tools of the tactical warfighter. Satellites have long been used to provide strategic communication, early warning of missile launch, and arms control verification. The U.S. armed forces increasingly use space assets to locate and strike targets on the battlefield. To date, though, no country deploys destructive weapons in space, for use against space or Earth targets, and no country possesses ground-based weapons designed explicitly to damage objects in space. The line between nonweaponization and weaponization is blurry, to be sure—but it has not yet been crossed.
In Neither Star Wars nor Sanctuary, Michael E. O'Hanlon makes a forceful case for keeping it this way. The United States, with military space budgets of around $20 billion a year, enjoys a remarkably favorable military advantage in space. Pursuing a policy of space weaponization solely in order to maximize its own military capabilities would needlessly jeopardize this situation by likely hastening development of space weapons in numerous countries. It would also reaffirm the prevalent international image of the United States as a global cowboy of sorts, too quick to reach for the gun.
O'Hanlon therefore asserts that U.S. military space policy should focus on delaying any movement toward weaponization, without foreclosing the option of developing space weapons in the future, if necessary. Extreme positions that would either hasten to weaponize space or permanently rule this out are not consistent with technological realities and U.S. security interests.
Book Description
The last in a popular series on movie stars in the military, this handsome book provides readers with a guide to film actors of many nations who served in various branches of their own military forces. Because they appeared in Hollywood movies, many of these figures will be familiar to Americans.
A few even won Oscars. Others worked closer to home but are still readily recognizable. Most of them date their service to World War II, and the preponderance is British. Among the more than sixty stars featured are the British actors Richard Attenborough, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Royal Navy gunner Sean Connery, Alex Guinness, Rex Harrison, Anthony Hopkins (who spent a year with the Royal Artillery during the Cold War), Ray Milland, Roger Moore (a first lieutenant with the British Army in occupied West Germany after World War II), David Niven, Michael Rennie, and Peter Ustinov. Those from Canada include Lorne Greene, Raymond Massey, and Walter Pidgeon. The Frenchmen include Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer. Also featured are Laurence Harvey of South Africa, Peter Finch of Australia, Oskar Werner of Germany, Toshiro Mifune of Japan, and Audrey Hepburn, who as a child was a courier for World War II resistance fighters in Holland.
While the book focuses on the stars' military experiences, it also provides information about their earlier lives and screen careers after their service. Like the other books in the series, it will have wide appeal.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Guide to Movie Stars in the Military!.......2007-05-09
INTERNATIONAL STARS AT WAR is the fourth - and last - in James Wise's 'Star' series. The first three (STARS IN BLUE, STARS IN KHAKI, STARS IN THE CORPS) dealt with U. S. actors/actresses who served in the military and/or saw combat. This time around, Wise looks at international stars and the result is as interesting, if not moreso, than its three predecessors.
Most of the 60+ stars featured in this book are British. There are several Canadians, Frenchmen, Germans, Japanese and Australians along with the occasional South African and even Rin Tin Tin! The list of actors covered is mind-boggling: Richard Attenborough, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Maurice Chevalier, Sean Connery, Stewart Granger, Alec Guinness, Cedric Hardwicke, Hardy Kruger, Christopher Lee, Patrick Macnee, David Niven, Terry-Thomas, etc.
The "At War' title though is a bit misleading since only a small portion of the 60 saw combat. Most served during WWII but in a non-combat situation. And a small number served in the post-war years.
Be that as it may, the stories found in this volume are quite interesting, sometimes surprising and occasionally humorous, such as the military mis-adventures of blithe spirit Peter Ustinov. It might surprise readers to discover that mild-mannered Alec Guinness had an incredible combat record as did Donald Pleasance, who served in the RAF and ended up in a German POW camp. And then - deja vu - twenty years later, Pleasance starred in 'The Great Escape!' Other combat vets included David Niven, Kenneth More, Anthony Quayle and Richard Todd. Peter Sellers, Trevor Howard and others served in rear area units. Among the men who served post-war were two future James Bonds (Sean Connery and Roger Moore), Anthony Hopkins, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole.
Film buffs and historians will enjoy this book. Well-written and well-researched, it offers a seldom seen glimpse into the lives of some very famous people.
Book Description
The expansion of space militarization forms a common thread with the explicit unilateral empire-building of the Bush administration. But just as Star Wars did not begin with the Missile Defense Agency, preventive war theory did not originate with Donald Rumsfeld. Advocates of military space always were on the front line of those demanding global dominance. Loring Wirbel argues that the seeds for the current space supremacy doctrine were sown at the end of the Cold War, in the early days of the Clinton administration. Examining the evolution of space-based tools, Wirbel shows that missile defense strategy is part of a dangerous US move to wage endless preventive war and demand global supremacy over allies and adversaries alike.
Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy provides a fresh look at the role of space as an enabler of the Bush administration's plans for endless preventive war. It debunks the benign notions of missile defence, and expands the definition of space supremacy beyond that of weapons in space, to include the unilateral misuse of space-based intelligence, communications, and targeting technologies.
Customer Reviews:
A frightening picture of unprecedented power.......2004-12-27
"Star Wars: U.S. Tools of Space Supremacy" by Loring Wirbel is a sobering account of space-based technologies and U.S. foreign policy. The author draws on his years of experience researching the defense industry to discuss how space technologies have evolved incrementally from the Cold War to today. The book paints a frightening picture of the unprecedented and virtually unchecked powers that are currently at the disposal of U.S. policy makers.
Mr. Wirbel details numerous government-funded space technology programs while discussing the national security objectives and philosophies that guided their creation. We find a desire to achieve military domination evident at the start of the Cold War but realized only recently with the demise of deterrence in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. The author painstakingly lays out a detailed chronology of how technological innovations have advanced in lock-step with increasingly bold and assertive U.S. foreign policies over the past forty years. In that light, the emergence of George W. Bush's unabashedly unilateralist administration is but an explicit expression of a U.S.-controlled world order that has existed well before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Among the book's many attributes is the debunking of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as a purely defensive program. The reader learns how the reality differs from the sales pitch delivered to the American people. Technologies related to the SDI program were in fact used to great effect for communications and surveillance purposes in conflicts in Central America, the Middle East and elsewhere. Interestingly, Mr. Wirble suggests that the outgoing administration of George Bush Sr. had set the table for meaningful disarmament. The author faults Bill Clinton for not seizing the historic opportunity to create a peace dividend in the first post-Cold War administration. Instead, full funding during the 1990s allowed the space technologies industries to mature and gain deadly sophistication, as demonstrated in Kosovo and Columbia later in the decade.
However, the failures to capture Osama Bin Laden and to win a decisive victory in the latest Iraq War underscores the limitations of space-based technologies and the application of force to achieve U.S. objectives. Instead, Mr. Wirbel advocates a ban on space weapons and an increased reliance on diplomacy and multilateralism as expressed through organizations such as the United Nations. He believes that peace activists must forge alliances with environmentalists and others to find humane solutions to contemporary political problems.
I recommend this book to those who may be concerned about the U.S.' projection of power into space and the implications it may have for our collective security on earth.
Average customer rating:
- History Continues To Adjust
- How did this get published?
- Second in a truly dreadful trilogy
- Better than the first book...
- Decent Alternate History
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Stars and Stripes in Peril (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)
Harry Harrison
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Stars and Stripes Triumphant
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Stars & Stripes Forever: A Novel of Alternate History (Stars & Stripes Trilogy)
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1862: A Novel
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Final Impact (The Axis of Time Trilogy, Book 3)
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1901
ASIN: 0345409353
Release Date: 2000-11-28 |
Amazon.com
Harry Harrison has been publishing science fiction for half a century; this novel appears in 2000, the year of his 75th birthday. His 1998 Stars and Stripes Forever was a foray into alternative history at the time of the U.S. Civil War. An opportunistic British invasion is so badly bungled that it unites warring Union and Confederate forces against the common enemy, and the course of events is rousingly changed.
Now it's 1863 and perfidious Albion is making a comeback via the Pacific, establishing a Mexican beachhead and planning attacks on united America's "soft underbelly" in the Gulf of Mexico. Gurkha and Sepoy troops build roads while sweaty white officers express nostalgia for England: "I despair of ever seeing her blissfully cold and fog-shrouded shores again."
An early coup of misdirection makes the British advance seem unstoppable--but America forges ahead with new guns and naval armor, and General Robert E. Lee devises an audacious counterblow. What better way to disrupt Britain's wicked schemes than to strike at her own rebellious province of Ireland?
Harrison, an American, perhaps overdoes the lofty dignity of figures like Abraham Lincoln, while showing British politicians with their full complement of warts. But the breathless, headlong action sweeps you away as the battle is planned and at last joined. Even hardened English patriots will feel a sense of wish-fulfillment at the possibility that America may solve the "Irish Question" for them. This is a rapid-paced, slightly slapdash, and unfailingly energetic adventure in alternate history--all great fun. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
In a war room in Washington, William Tecumseh Sherman and General Robert E. Lee huddle together and plan their next, joint military operation. In the jungles of Mexico, Ulysses S. Grant is locked in brutal combat with the best of the British Army. And in the heart of the new American South a fragile peace is threatened . . .
In the dazzling alternate history of Harry Harrison, this is the world as it stands in 1863. Just three years before, a titanic Civil War loomed in America. But an incident involving a British ship and two Confederate spies changed everything. As Abraham Lincoln defied Britain's Lord Palmerston, tensions between the two nations boiled overæand Her Majesty's Navy unleashed an attack on American soil aimed at bolstering the Confederate cause. The results were catastrophic. A stunned North and South put aside their differences and a new kind of war erupted, with Americans fighting side by side against the British on two fronts: in the South and on the Canadian border. Now, Britain has been defeated and America is struggling to keep its union togetheræuntil another blow is struck.
It comes from Mexico, where elite units of Her Majesty's Armyæincluding the famed Gurkha fightersæare massing for a possible attack through Texas. Into the gauntlet Lincoln sends his chosen angel of death, General Grant. But the weary president knows that two centuries of British power will not be ended with a single battle. So his top soldiers, including Lee and Sherman, plan the most daring naval invasion ever launched: an assault on British soil itself. And in a secret that must be protected by an underground army of spies and secret agents, the U.S. will invade the Emerald Isleæto set the Irish free at last.
Filled with real characters on both sides of the conflict, Stars and Stripes in Peril is the new masterwork from one of our most provocative authors. Harry Harrison brilliantly examines the machinations that drive our world, the choices that shape the future, and the people and passions that compose nations both great and small. Venturing beyond a fascinating question of what if, Harrison shows how technology and world politics had the power to shape history's first great World Waræhalf a century before it began.
Customer Reviews:
History Continues To Adjust.......2007-01-09
From a single small change in history came a British invasion of the United States and the reunification of Union and Confederacy. The British were driven out, Canada declared its independence from the United Kingdom, and then things settled down for a little while. But Harry Harrison knows his history (unfortunately, he knows his history better than our current gaggle of politicians), he knows that an enemy unconquered is an enemy undefeated. Britain has a new plan: to invade the United States through a politically divided and tumultuous Mexico. How successful have we been at securing our border with Mexico today? Would it have been possible to secure that border in the 1860s? No. A bold counter-invasion is necessary. Considering how many Irish have emigrated to America, considering America's easy access, then, to military intelligence of the Emerald Isle as well as soldiers who are highly motivated to return home in triumph, an American invasion of Ireland is a plausible counter-move to the British presence in Mexico.
Harrison's "Stars and Stripes" series continues to entertain, with stories not too spare in detail, but not bogged down in detail either. Innovative machines of war, which began to appear in reality during the Civil War, are further accelerated by the new threat from Britain, as innovation is always driven by the pressures of war and security. These weapons launch General William Tecumseh Sherman well ahead of his Continental counterparts, and catch them wholly unprepared. He discovers "Lightening War"--Blitzkrieg--quite by accident when he realizes that he can move his troops quickly by train and overwhelm traditional defenses with his modern weapons. Warfare has inadvertently leapt into the 20th century in an eerie precursor of what we all know was to come.
I know the Brits are none-too-fond of this series, and I don't blame them, but these books are fun reading on this side of the pond. Just the alternate-idea of General Robert E. Lee's invasion of northern Ireland is enough to thrill.
How did this get published?.......2006-07-11
Okay.... It started out with a harmless, poorly researched novel that was okay for the non-historian. Now it is just silly. Really, it is too ridiculous to even give credence to. Britons are dumb, the Union is all-powerful, and 1942 clearly wasn't that far from 1862, as the USA seems to have mastered every technological advancement short of air power. I will not even bother with his last book, and I recommend you not bother with this one.
Second in a truly dreadful trilogy.......2006-06-21
I enjoyed everything else I have read from Harry Harrison, and am fascinated by alternative history, so I expected to like the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy. I didn't.
The three books in the series are:
Stars and Stripes Forever
Stars and Stripes in Peril
Stars and Stripes Triumphant.
The starting premise of the first book - Britain blundering into war with the North in the American civil war - is horrifying plausible, which is not surprising as this very nearly happened. However, the author then abandoned any attempt at either a realistic attempt to work through what might have happened, or to look sympathically at how the situation might have developed from the viewpoint of all sides. Instead, looking for a way to turn both the USA and CSA into heroes, he cast the Brits as incompetent and evil cretins who both sides could unite against.
In this second book the principle that the USA and CSA had united against the Brits is already established and Harrison just takes it from there. Given what has previously happened, most of the book is not as ludicrous as the first one - although there are still some pretty silly things - but the basic premise still takes the course of the story too far away from anything which could realistically have happened in our world to work as alternative history.
Harry Harrison is almost the last writer on earth I would have expected to prostitute his enormous talents with such chauvinistic rubbish as the Stars and Stripes trilogy. One-sided nationalism is not usually his style at all, and he has written another book about a set of events which might have changed the course of the US Civil War/War between the States - "Rebel in Time" - which is far superior to this.
For anyone who is looking for a good account of how the American Civil war might have gone wrong, try Harry Turtledove's "The Guns of the South," or "How Few Remain" and the "Great War" and "American Empire" trilogies which follow it. Or indeed Harry Harrison's "Rebel in Time".
Better than the first book..........2004-11-20
Yeah, that kind of surprised me too, till I figured out why - it is no longer based on our REAL history. It has gone so far off track that Harry Harrison can write it anyway he wants and as long as he keeps to the logic and reality he set up in the first book it works. I also loved the scene between John Ericsson and William P. Parrott as well as the scene between Mr. Ericsson and Captain Raphael Semmes.
But most of the book feels rushed and the characters are bland, cut out paper dolls, set up to do certain actions and say certain things for the plot to go in THAT direction.
Anyway, the plot is England and allied European nations invade Mexico. The invasion of the US is just around the corner and Lincoln decides he has to do something about it. So they decide the best way to open a second front and force Britain to withdraw its troops is to invade Ireland.
It sounds simple, but even Mr. Harrison shows that the United States Army and Navy would have a few problems they couldn't foresee.
But after 334 pages you know there is going to be a third book.
Decent Alternate History.......2003-10-01
Like some of the readers here I found this to be an enjoyable but ultimately forgettable read. I have not read the first novel but it was easy to get into this one without having done so. What is strange about the book is that it is not lacking in pages (it's long for a sci fi novel) yet there isn't much detail. Probably because there's so much ground to cover. Yet one comes away with the impression that invading and liberating Ireland would have been extremely simple. Whole battles are resolved in the space of a few sentences. Even the Protestant problem Harrison brings up is dealt with in a matter of a few pages.
There are also a couple of situations where Harrison sets up problems just to lengthen the story. So he offers a ridiculous setup and an even more ridiculous solution. A good example of this is when the secret service agent is following the spy into the tavern, watches him for hours, and then suddenly leaves at the perfect time to "get a bite to eat". Just silly.
Unlike another reviewer I wasn't exactly put off by the dropping of the Jefferson Davis as night rider storyline - it was rather embarassingly foolish. So the ex-president of the Confederacy spends months recovering from a nearly fatal wound to ... put on a hood and ride around with a white trash movement like the KKK? Give me a break. Not to mention that Jefferson lived on the coast in his palacial home (which is still a monument in Biloxi). And he just happens to be the only one shot in the raid? It was all very poorly constructed, and I would have preferred that Harrison make his points about the Freedmans' Bureau and the slowness of the South to change in a more elegant fashion.
Harrison's general attitude towards the South is rather tiresome throughout the novel. Most people come away from Civil War study with the naive opinion that the North was a land full of idealists who wanted to free the slaves, and the South was just a bunch of racist jerks. Not the case. The North was just as complicit in the construction of slave-based economy as the South was, and their plan for the dismantling of that economy was as nonexistent as our exit plan for Iraq. Certainly the system should have gone, but to expect it just to vanish because we suddenly deemed it not right was ignorant. But that's a whole matter in and of itself. It's just tiresome to see the place I grew up continuously misrepresented. I expected more from a Civil War buff like Harrison.
So in the end the book is a sometimes fun ride, but also at times irritating and trite. This edition of the book is also full of some strangely placed punctuation and a number of typographical errors, which only mar the story. But it's definitely better than Harrison's last two "Stainless Steel Rat" entries.
Book Description
Like President Reagan with his "Star Wars" program, President Bush has again made national missile defense (NMD) a national priority at a cost which may exceed $150 billion in the next ten years. Defense experts Eisendrath, Goodman, and Marsh contend that recent tests give little confidence that any of the systems under consideration--land-based, boost-phase, or laser-driven--have any chance of effective deployment within decades. The interests of the military-industrial complex and the unilateralist views of the Bush administration are driving NMD, not a desire to promote national security. Rather than increase U.S. security, the plans of the current administration, if implemented, will erode it. NMD will heighten the threat from China and Russia, alienate key allies, and provoke a new arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, all in response to a greatly exaggerated threat from so-called "rogue states," such as North Korea and Iran. Thoughtful diplomacy, not a misguided foreign policy based on a hopeless dream of a "Fortress America," is the real answer to meeting Americas security goals. Designed to stimulate interest and debate among the public and policy-makers, he Phantom Defense provides solid facts and combines scientific, geopolitical, historical, and strategic analysis to critique the delusion of national missile defense, while suggesting a more effective alternative.
Amazon.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frances FitzGerald (Fire in the Lake) offers a history of the politics surrounding American antiballistic missile technology. She focuses most of her account, appropriately, on President Reagan's efforts to establish a Strategic Defense Initiative (popularly known as "Star Wars") to provide the United States with umbrella-like protection from nuclear attack. FitzGerald, like many of her fellow Reagan detractors, is relentlessly critical of this initiative. Her book, in fact, is partly a psychobiography of the 40th president. She makes the familiar claim that Reagan's acting career had a profound effect on how he governed. Yet she takes it a step further by arguing that specific movies had a deep influence on his political decisions. "SDI was surely Reagan's greatest triumph as an actor-storyteller," she writes, and goes on to suggest that Reagan was favorably disposed to spending billions on ABM technology because, in the 1940 film Murder in the Air, he played a secret agent assigned to protect a new weapon "capable of paralyzing electrical currents and destroying all enemy planes in the air."
Although much of Way Out There in the Blue covers recent history, the controversial debate over missile defense continues today. An epilogue covers developments in the 1990s and mentions a pair of successful tests that occurred in 1999. Yet FitzGerald remains a skeptic, believing a workable ABM system is too complex, too expensive, and too easy to defeat. Conservatives will chafe at her condescending appraisal of Reagan; liberals will appreciate her aggressive attacks on a defense strategy they have never liked. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Way Out There in the Blue is a major work of history by the Pulitzer PrizeÂwinning author of Fire in the Lake. Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the twentieth century.
Reagan's presidency and the man himself have always been difficult to fathom. His influence was enormous, and the few powerful ideas he espoused remain with us still -- yet he seemed nothing more than a charming, simple-minded, inattentive actor. FitzGerald shows us a Reagan far more complex than the man we thought we knew. A master of the American language and of self-presentation, the greatest storyteller ever to occupy the Oval Office, Reagan created a compelling public persona that bore little relationship to himself.
The real Ronald Reagan -- the Reagan who emerges from FitzGerald's book -- was a gifted politician with a deep understanding of the American national psyche and at the same time an executive almost totally disengaged from the policies of his administration and from the people who surrounded him.
The idea that America should have an impregnable shield against nuclear weapons was Reagan's invention. His famous Star Wars speech, in which he promised us such a shield and called upon scientists to produce it, gave rise to the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan used his sure understanding of American mythology, history and politics to persuade the country that a perfect defense against Soviet nuclear weapons would be possible, even though the technology did not exist and was not remotely feasible. His idea turned into a multibillion-dollar research program. SDI played a central role in U.S.-Soviet relations at a crucial juncture in the Cold War, and in a different form it survives to this day.
Drawing on prodigious research, including interviews with the participants, FitzGerald offers new insights into American foreign policy in the Reagan era. She gives us revealing portraits of major players in Reagan's administration, including George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, Donald Regan and Paul Nitze, and she provides a radically new view of what happened at the Reagan-Gorbachev summits in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington and Moscow.
FitzGerald describes the fierce battles among Reagan's advisers and the frightening increase of Cold War tensions during Reagan's first term. She shows how the president who presided over the greatest peacetime military buildup came to espouse the elimination of nuclear weapons, and how the man who insisted that the Soviet Union was an "evil empire" came to embrace the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, and to proclaim an end to the Cold War long before most in Washington understood that it had ended.
Way Out There in the Blue is a ground-breaking history of the American side of the end of the Cold War. Both appalling and funny, it is a black comedy in which Reagan, playing the role he wrote for himself, is the hero.
Download Description
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Fire in the Lake" comes another major work of history, an original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the 20th century.
Customer Reviews:
Me think Book good.......2004-03-23
Me think book good. LIberals smart, conservatives dumb, me think liberals better then Regan, stoopid Regan, not smart like liBarels, Francies Fitsjerald smart, jest like cuzzin in Arkansaw who maried sister, liBiarals smart.
First-rate scholarship and second-rate understanding.......2004-02-28
The major merits of Fitzgreald's dense tome is that it undeniably calls to attention perhaps the most blatantly misguided policy of the Reagan years--SDI, "Star Wars", the anti-nuclear missile defense system that cost the taxpayers billions and failed to deliver. Reagan partially concieved and spearheaded the admirable goal of breaking the deadlock MAD [mutually assured destruction] had on U.S.-Soviet relations. Despite Reagan's vision, or maybe because of it, SDI was an unmitigated failure. Fitzgerald highlights Reagan's hands-off approach to his cabinet, which lead to massive problems and came close to destroying his reputation when Iran-Contra broke. Why, then, with such a tight grasp of these particular concepts and the researched facts to back them up, is Fitzgerald's book less than perfect?
For one thing, the reader doesn't get the whole story on a number of points. Had Fitzgerald restricted her focus entirely to SDI the book would be nearly flawless. However, she's intent on showing how Reagan's dedication to SDI is related to other less-than-perfect incidents in his administration. And so we get the financial wiz-kid and architect of the miserable supply-side "Reaganomics" David Stockman being portrayed as a hapless bystander to Reagan's barrage of indifference (Lou Cannon demonstrates otherwise). Don Regen is shown to be screwed over by Reagan's indifference (Edmund Morris sets the record straight in this regard). Sure, Reagan did often give off the impression of indifference, whether or not he was so. It is simplifaction to say that Reagan just didn't care, though.
The intense, limited scope of Fitzgerald's research shows through in other areas. Henry Kissinger's seemingly irrational support of SDI makes no sense without knowledge of Nixon's Safeguard plan in the 70s, where Nixon and Kissinger--much like some of Reagan's aids hoped to do with SDI--started an ABM system program in order to bargain it away with the Soviets.
Fitzgerald's work is valuable but only in context with other works studying Reagan and his legacy. The casual reader interested in the how and why of Reagan should look elsewhere and come back here only after learning more background.
Poorly written and ideologically biased.......2004-01-09
Of all the books written on the Reagan administration, this one may be one of the worst. Poorly written with excessive attention to detail that makes the story plod, it makes one wonder if Frances Fitzgerald was a one hit wonder. Fitzgerald's portrayal of Reagan as out of step with reality - starting with the book title and included throughout its content - is less of a description of reality and more, I suspect, the blowing off of ideological steam. If you despise Reagan and think he was a dunderhead this book will do more than reinforce those beliefs. If you want an intelligent and useful discussion of the Reagan Administration and its foreign policy walk right past this one.
Disillusionment.......2003-12-30
The JCS would never accept an arms reduction without a space defense program. The JCS goal was keep SDI in research avoiding deployment and increase interceptor missile deployment. The doctrine of deterrence would could through the twenth century.
The Reagan administration gave the Bush administration an unique opportunity to reduce arms. The Bush administration did not continue the Reagan administrations views on foreign policy with Gorbachev. The Bush administration would stop and the continuation of the Reagan summits ceased and Bush would contemplate the previous administrations philosophy and direction with disagreement. The Bush administration would take a broad interpretation of the ABM. The transition between the Reagan and the Bush administration would treat the ARM reduction opportunity like a hostile take over, replacing Shultz and Weinberger with Bush people, and resume deterrence buildup policy. Bush's differed in his view of foreign policy, not willing to take Reagan's hardline position. Bush felt Reagan's hardline rhethoric was offensive to the Soviet leadership. Reagan had openly challenged Gorbachev on issues of human rights condemning the violence. Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire". Reagan's hardline position postured the United States as one of military strength, 3 to 4 percent increases for SDI, and a estimated cost of 1.6 trillion dollars to deploy SDI; inconsistency in reporting and engineering feasiblity of the chemical and X-Ray laser brightness (Daniel Graham and Teller) as a military weapon; economic drives to reduce military spending, balance the budget, and reduce inflation. Reagan's NORAD vision prompted his to dream of a defensive system capable of making the Soviet ICBM impotent eliminating the potential of first strike. Reagan realized "Mutal Assured Destruction" did not stop a first strike response, it only deterred; and with the Soviets considering the possiblity of winning a nuclear war, defensive missile systems needed to be engineered and deployed immediately. Moscow media was warning of the possiblity of U.S first strike. The fear was caused more by a pattern of military buildup than an particular doctrine. The nuclear arms races of the cold war positioned the U.S in a potential first strike position. ARM reduction talks were a mandatory must.
Gorbachev as General Secretary was considered trustworthy, known as "incorruptable and courageous", by Soviet leadership too secure Soviet communist interests and start reform leading too social and economic structural revolution of the soviet union paving a pathway for Marxist views of property rights, freedom of press and speech, primary elections, openings for foreign investment and transplating of foreign companies, free markets and free trade, and the arms reduction. Gorbachev would raise to the status and power of President. Boris Yeltsin was critical of Gorbachev. Gorbachev would not be able to break from Russia's totalitarian past. Yeltsin would be eventually elected as president. Yeltsin would struggle with reform against the hardliners and failing expectations of previous era's. Yeltsin would face the struggle to a market economy: failure of taxation, hyper inflation shock to lifting price controls, and problems with stablizing privatization.
Gorbachev received a standing obviation from the U.N. after a fifteen year soviet absence caused by Brezhnev condemning speech against the U.N. Gorbachev seemed different from other Soviet leadership and Margret Thatcher seemed to agree. Gorbachev return to the U.N signals a change in Soviet strategy. The strategy did not deviate from the goal of world domination.
Gorbachev proposed an unique idea, "the complete destruction of all nuclear weapons by 2000" and social change for the Soviet Union. This vision would make Gorbachev, man of the year, according to Times news. The reduction of 50,000 missiles. Was the offer pragmatic and realistic? Reagan never did buy into a 100 percent arms reduction nor believe in negotiate from a position of weakness. Reagan had forced the confrontation by building up the NATO missile arsenal.
The soviet military economy was bankrupt and the financial drain at a crisis level, social change was inevitable: the actual missile growth rate was lower than Soviet Analyst had originally reported, Soviet satelite terrorities conflicts could not be assured intervention, and Gorbachev would start Perestroika changing the face of communism. "Perestroika stimulate human initiative and creativity within the Leninist/Stalinist paradigm." Reagan exploited this weakeness and put the U.S in an unique negotiating position.
Reagan spoke to students at the Moscow University telling them they were part of a great change in their country and had the responsibility to ensure the change was successful. The U.S Soviet talks started at the same time: the Iran-Contra scandal with North and Ponidexter (arms/drugs for hostages); and the Chernobyl disaster forcing the evacuation of a hundred thousand people.
Reagan, Collin Powell, and Shultz formed a tight negiotating team advising Reagan on tactics and strategy during talks with Gorbachev. Shultz work with Sheverdnadze opened up allowed talks to open between the two countries. Powell was very aware of Gorbachev's skill in debate and couched Reagan on counter tactics: more one on one private discussion, type double space notes for Reagan to follow, and maintaining control of the conversation. Gorbachev was a tough negiotator, who knew his facts and Soviet interests and he came prepared and should not be under-estimated.
Reagan hardline rhetoric, love for America, and empathy put him one of the most unique negotiating positions in the world history: the position of achieve a realistic arms reduction. Eventually, Gorbachev would propose over a 1400 soviet missile and 429 U.S missile reduction and the beginning of START and condition SDI to stay in research phase only. The proposal could not be accepted. SDI research would continue through the Bush administration into the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration would provide the greatest chances for SDI deployment. Other deteriant missile types were conceived, such as small and light smart missile providing a defensive shield from space that cost hundreds of thousand of dollars rather than millions. The greatest challenge to the ABM technology was that Soviets missile changed from liquid fuel to solid fuel causing and increased variance in speed, obsoleting missile interceptor technology. Continual adaptions in Soviet missile technology threaten the security confidence.
The nuclear threat has not gone away. Topol M under the ABM treaty again challenges our perception of a defensive shield against an adaptive missile technology capable of confusing satelite tracking and mid flight navigational variation designed to avoid destruction by ground interceptor missiles. The need for defensive missile is as real today as in Reagan's era.
Other personality discussed in the Book were Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Weinberger, Meese, and Baker.
Terrible Book.......2003-07-06
It what amounts to nothing more then an attack by a leftist writer, Fitzgeralds focus is to demean the charcater of a great president. Weather he was a bumbling ... or was just acting, like in his movies, fitzgerald argument does not deal with the fact that when Ronald Reagan entered office the Cold War had never been colder, and by the time he left office it was essentialy over. Was it a matter of luck that the collapse of the Soviet Empire occured on the watch of the most anti-communist president in the history of the country? Fitzgerald can theorize anything she/he pleases, but ask the Russians what impact Star Wars had on their demise.
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- Can Nuclear Weapons and Humankind Co-exist???
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Rushing to Armageddon: The Shocking Truth about Canada, Missile Defence, and Star Wars
Mel Hurtig
Manufacturer: McClelland & Stewart
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0771041624
Release Date: 2004-09-28 |
Book Description
Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig exposes Paul Martin’s secret commitment to George W. Bush’s weaponizing of space.
Mel Hurtig has five best-sellers to his credit but this is easily his most important book. Readers will be shocked to learn how both the American and Canadian governments are intentionally misleading their citizens about the Pentagon's unprecedented plans to weaponize space; about the huge new Russian and Chinese nuclear missile buildup resulting from U.S. Star Wars plans; about the destruction of vitally important, long-standing arms control agreements; and about the rapidly increasing danger of a nuclear apocalypse.
Among the topics covered are why the so-called U.S. missile “defence”system is really about establishing a U.S. first-strike-from-space capability; why both Paul Martin’s government and Stephen Harper's Conservatives want to join in George W. Bush’s dangerous program; how numerous official U.S. documents reveal their plans to “dominate space” and place deadly lasers and nuclear weapons in space; how today’s nuclear weapons are up to 350 times more powerful than the bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki; how the missile “defence” plans will mean the placement of missiles on Canadian soil making Canada much less secure.
Hurtig provides remarkable and often devastating new information that will shock, anger, and appall readers. This is a book that every Canadian must read before Ottawa becomes an active partner in a tragic and potentially cataclysmic blunder.
Customer Reviews:
Can Nuclear Weapons and Humankind Co-exist???.......2005-08-23
+++++
This powerful, easy-to-read book by the founder of the Council of Canadians and an Officer of the Order of Canada, Mel Hurtig, is "about how [the present governing minority] Liberal government [has] misled Canadians about one of the most vitally important decisions in the 137-year [as of 2004] history of our country, and how...the [Conservative Party wants] Canada to quickly and enthusiastically join the American Star Wars and other military plans."
Hurtig has written this book "because [he fears] that aggressive American militarism and the undeniable U.S. plans for the weaponization of space are rapidly leading the world towards nuclear carnage."
Let me state outright that this book is just not for Canadians. It is also meant for concerned Americans as well as any concerned, rational member of the world community.
In this book you will find, among other things, the names of various Canadian politicians but as well the names of various American politicians. Also there are names of people in the American military as well as the names of concerned scientists.
This book is extremely well documented. (There are footnotes on almost every page.) Hurtig's main narrative consists of mainly quotations from politicians, scientists, and military people but it also has extensive quotations from authors, journalists, and commentators.
There are 18 chapters. What I will do is state the title of each chapter first. A few chapter titles catch the essence of a chapter's contents but if a title does not, I elaborate with my own description or quote from the chapter.
(1) An Assault On Humanity. Describes the destruction and effects on humans that resulted from the dropping of the nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. ***This is clearly the most descriptive and heart-wrenching chapter.
(2) History's Worst Possible Nightmare. The nightmare: a nuclear war. Hurtig explains why.
(3) Making Us And The World Less Secure. ("Us" refers to Canada and the World.) "Deployment of the national missile defense system will likely tear up the fabric of arms control agreements which have improved global security for over thirty years."
(4) Secret, Confidential, And Canadian Eyes Only. Documents Hurtig obtained make it quite clear "that [Canada's] Department of Defense has made up its mind and strongly favors Canadian participation in the American Ballistic Missile Defense plans."
(5) Let's Not Have Too Many Meeting. "The present [Ballistic Missile Plan] has nothing to do with the weaponizing of space." Hurtig has uncovered evidence that this is false.
(6) Don't Even Think About Thinking About It. That is, Canada should not even think about not joining in on the U.S. missile program because there would be dire consequences. Is this really true?
(7) How Could We Possibly Go Along [with the U.S. missile defense program]? ("We" refers to Canada.) Hurtig answers this question.
(8) A Pandemic Of Insecurity: Escalation, Destabilization, Proliferation. "At the UN conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty, there was broad condemnation of the [U.S.] Ballistic Missile Defense [plan] on the grounds that it would undermine decades of arms control agreements and provoke a new weapons race."
(9) Shield Of Dreams: Why The American National Missile Defense Won't Work.
(10) A Nuclear Arsenal In Space: Approving What We Have Always Opposed. "It is not credible for Canada to seek involvement and claim that such involvement does not imply support for the space-based [and nuclear weapon] elements that it knows Washington is actively pursuing." ***This is a most important chapter.
(11) The Busboy At The Conveyer Belt Inside The Tent. "Clearly this [the U.S. missile defense program] is an escalation of the arms race. This is a lunacy program. It cannot be justified from a defense point of view, or from an economic point of view."
(12) Rushing Into A Gigantic Boondoggle, And The REAL Threat. "The extraordinary emphasis on missile defense represents misplaced priorities. The top priority should instead be combating the threat of nuclear terrorism" (Union of Concerned Scientists).
(13) The Rogue Nation: No Longer Trusted...It Should Be Feared. This chapter examines how the U.S. is a rogue nation with respect to nuclear weapons.
(14) The Foolish And Arrogant Bush Doctrine. This chapter examines George W. Bush's ultimatum: "Either you're with us or you're against us...Over time its going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity [with regard to U.S. defense, military, and foreign policies]."
(15) National Mythological Defense: Profits and Greed Lining The Pockets Of Defense Contractors.
(16) The Wrong-Headed Priorities Of Government Are Stunning And Intolerable. ("Government" refers to that of the U.S.) "I want to know why there is always so much money for war and so little for the human condition."
(17) The Sword Of Damocles: Doesn't Canada Have To Choose Which Side We're On? (The story of Damocles is a Greek fable where, despite having everything, there is a sword over his head hung by a single horsehair that could fall at any moment.)
(18) Moving By Stealth To Co-operate In Our Own Ghastly Annihilation. ("Our" refers to Canada and the World.)
There are also three VERY informative appendices. The last one is entitled, "Rogue States, Terrorists, an Accident Waiting to Happen, and Why Destroying All Nuclear Weapons MUST BE the Only answer."
Finally, the only minor problem I had with this book is that its chapter titles in the table of contents and the chapters themselves are not numbered (as they are above). This book would have been more reader-friendly if these were numbered. (Interestingly, each appendix is numbered.)
In conclusion, this is a fascinating and honest book that presents the facts regarding nuclear weaponization of space and what this means for the world. If you want to know about this controversial issue, then this is a must-read!!
(first published 2004; acknowledgements; brief biographies of some cited authorities; translation of acronyms and abbreviations; preface; 18 chapters; main narrative 210 pages; 3 appendices)
+++++
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The Arms Race in the Era of Star Wars
David Carlton
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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