Garry Wills is best known for Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. But back in 2010, Wills published Bomb Power. With the attack on Israel less than a week ago, when Iran fired 16 tons of ordinance in the form of drones and missiles, what Wills had to say about bombs and power seemed very pertinent for our times.
For the nitty-gritty aspects of the development of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer lays it all out. But Wills is more interested in “Atomic Politics” where only three people in the U.S. Government actually knew about the Manhattan Project. And that secrecy continues to this day although Marjorie Taylor Greene may have slipped when she talked about “Space Lasers.”
A key Wills topic is “The Care and Keeping of the Bomb.” Wills argues that once a country has a nuclear weapon, the rules change. The first change is that the Government needs to secure its weapons. Secret bases are established. Secret research into make more powerful and accurate bombs needs to be undertaken.
The United States is the only country to use atomic weapons in war time. But given the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it’s only a matter of time before a rogue state like North Korea launches a nuclear missile at one of its “enemies.”
Wills also shows how Government secrecy can be used to cover up embarrassments, keep failures from Congressional oversight, sabotage legislation, and disguise corruption. All of this adds to Presidential power…which could be misused in the name of “National Security.”
If you have any interest in the policy issues of nuclear weapons and the Government apparatus needed to protect them, Bomb Power will give you plenty to think about. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
War in Peace –1
I. THE MAKING OF BOMB POWER
- Fatal Miracle — 7
- Atomic Politics — 24
- The Care and Keeping of the Bomb — 41
II. THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE
4. Beginnings (1945-1946) — 57
5. Annus Mirabilis (1947) — 70
6. Completing the Apparatus (1948-1952) — 86
III. PRESIDENTIAL WARS
7. Korea — 105
8. Permanent Emergency — 120
IV. INFORMATION POWER
9. Secrecy as Embarrassment Cover — 137
10. Secrecy as Congress Deceiver — 148
11. Secrecy as Policy Disabler — 161
12. Secrecy as Crime Concealer — 175
V. EXECUTIVE USURPATIONS
13. “War Powers” — 187
14. Challenging Secrecy — 197
15. The Unitary Executive — 209
16. American Monarch — 222
Afterword — 237
Notes — 243
Index — 267
Assured mutual destruction is still a viable deterrent!
Bob, unless you’re a nut like Kim Jong Un!
He talks tough but he’s not about to jeopardize his cushy lifestyle! If he attacked us, or even South Korea, we’d wipe him out in hours!
Bob, I hope you’re right. Nutty people do nutty things…
Kim no more insane than Drumpf…and Netanyahu not displaying any great measure of sanity of late. (Bulletin today about the German fascist party AfD being infiltrated by Chinese/”P”RC spies seems all too inevitable–welcomed as fellow fascists?)
Todd, Netanyahu is using war as the main reason to keep himself in power.
And out of jail for a certain degree of graft. Human excrement.
The first Wills books I remember was his NIXON AGONISTES (1970). But a look at his bibliography on Wikipedia shows something surprising: JACK RUBY (1968).
Again, thanks to George for reading something I will never read. Things are depressing enough.
Jeff, as I predicted after reading Wills’ BOMB POWER last week, Israel “retaliated” for Iran’s drone and missile attack with a “show of force” for show.
What Jeff said.
Phil read all of his books. I probably donated most of Wills books to the library here where they gather dust in their basement.
Patti, the problem with writing about politics is the events retreat in Time so few people are interested bought to read about it. Phil was right to read Wills. I’ve enjoyed all the Wills books I’ve read, about a dozen of them.
You put your finger on it, George. We live in a world where Marjorie Taylor Greene — who is on record as endorsing the Pizzagate and Frazzledrip stories, and believes the Charlottesville riots, the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, and mass school shootings are all “False Flag” operations — is privy to state secrets.
Dan, Marjorie Taylor Greene makes up her own “secret” information. Who would want to live in Greene’s universe of conspiracy theories and lies?
MAGAts do, George.
Todd, you’re right again!