Download e-book for kindle: Armageddon Postponed: A Different View of Nuclear Weapons by Theodore Caplow

within the remaining days of global conflict II, scientists operating for the U.S. executive invented nuclear explosives via splitting the atoms of heavy metals. Germany had already surrendered, however the usa and its allies remained at battle 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 battle. And - to date - they're the final. on account that then, tens of millions of nuclear guns were synthetic and deployed by means of governments all over the world. a lot of those guns are even more strong than the atomic bombs that destroyed the 2 jap towns. None were used thus far, and the absence of nuclear conflict 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 via terrorists has taken its position in our reliable nightmares. up to now, no terrorist workforce has made a major attempt to shop for, scouse borrow, 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 positioned an finish to human civilization, yet those buttons have by no means been driven. Why now not? What has to date saved us secure from those mortal hazards? these are the questions that Caplow asks and solutions in Armageddon Postponed.