Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: The Struggle for Nuclear Parity
| Date: 28 April 2011, 05:33
|
Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: The Struggle for Nuclear Parity
By Lee C. Carpenter
* Publisher: Algora Publishing
* Number Of Pages:
* Publication Date: 2009-02-14
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0875867022
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780875867021
Product Description:
As Russia re-asserts itself on the global stage, a look back at the hard, and yes, cold facts of the Cold War might indicate a shift in Americans understanding of our relative strengths and weaknesses and add a touch of humility to our sense of primacy in the world. Contrary to President Johnson's assurances to the public, there had indeed been a missile gap, and the author is the man who quantified it.
An engineer who served on the frontlines of the struggle for military parity, Lee Carpenter was party to the steps taken by US military, technical and industrial groups to assess, counter, and of course to seek to outperform the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1989. The race was a close one, and the US was not always in the lead. In fact, the author's experts analysis established, beyond reasonable doubt, that by December 1981 the Soviets could destroy 95% of US strategic targets in less than one hour.
Due in part to Carpenter's efforts several misguided military endeavors were cancelled, and more realistic and more worthwhile programs were implemented. The B-70 Strategic Bomber Program and the Multiple Protective Shelter and Densepack basing schemes for the MX (later Peacekeeper) ICBM stand out as ambitious boondoggles whose demise was good for the country. Eliminating these developments saved $10 billion or more in ill-considered defense expenditures.
This book narrates the 40-year battle to assess, plan and achieve strategic parity in a nuclear world, and chronicles the rivalries within and among the corporations, military and government bodies that flourished during that battle.
A vociferous advocate of efforts that resulted in the development and production of more than l000 short-range attack missiles (SRAM) for the B-52, FB-111 and B-1 strategic bombers, he redefined the unique and necessary strategic bomber mission and the avionics bombing system for the B-52 was redesigned for the new mission. Twenty-one years of advocacy finally brought the successful B-1 Bomber to development, production and deployment in the mid-l980s.
Summary: Brilliant, a Must Read
Rating: 5
I lived through the years the author disussed, and participated at a remove in events such as those of the Short Range Attack Missile. So far as my personal data are relevant, Mr Carpenter has described the events with masterful accuracy. All persons concerned with or interested in the key events of the closing days of the Cold War should obtain a copy of the book for their interest and for their archives.
|
DISCLAIMER:
This site does not store Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: The Struggle for Nuclear Parity on its server. We only index and link to Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: The Struggle for Nuclear Parity provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete Memoirs of a Cold Warrior: The Struggle for Nuclear Parity if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Comments (0)
All
