My Journey at the Nuclear Brink

by William Perry

Overview

My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's efforts to keep the world safe from a nuclear catastrophe. It tells the story of his coming of age in the nuclear era, his role in trying to shape and contain it, and how his thinking has changed about the threat these weapons pose.

In a remarkable career, Perry has dealt firsthand with the changing nuclear threat. Decades of experience and special access to top-secret knowledge of strategic nuclear options have given Perry a unique, and chilling, vantage point from which to conclude that nuclear weapons endanger our security rather than securing it.

This book traces his thought process as he journeys from the Cuban Missile Crisis, to crafting a defense strategy in the Carter Administration to offset the Soviets' numeric superiority in conventional forces, to presiding over the dismantling of more than 8,000 nuclear weapons in the Clinton Administration, and to his creation in 2007, with George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and Henry Kissinger, of the Nuclear Security Project to articulate their vision of a world free from nuclear weapons and to lay out the urgent steps needed to reduce nuclear dangers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804796811
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	11/11/2015
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

William J. Perry was the 19th Secretary of Defense for the United States from February 1994 to January 1997. He previously served as Deputy Secretary of Defense (1993–1994) and as Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (1977–1981). He is the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor (emeritus) at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

1. The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Nuclear Nightmare
2. A Fire in the Sky
3. The Rise of the Soviet Missile Threat and the Race for Data to Understand It
4. An Original Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and the Advance of Spy Technology
5. A Call to Serve
6. Implementing the Offset Strategy and the Emergence of Stealth Technology
7. Buildup of the US Nuclear Force
8. Nuclear Alerts, Arms Control, and Missed Opportunities in Nonproliferation
9. The Undersecretary as Diplomat
10. Back in Civilian Life: The Cold War Ends But the Nuclear Journey Continues
11. A Return to Washington: The New Challenge of "Loose Nukes" and the Lurching Reform of Defense Acquisition
12. I Become Secretary of Defense
13. Dismantling Nuclear Weapons and the Legacy of Nunn-Lugar
14. The Crisis with North Korea: Containing a Nuclear State
15. Ratifying Start II and Battling Over the Test Ban Treaty
16. NATO, Peacekeeping in Bosnia, and the Rise of Security Ties With Russia
17. The "Immaculate Invasion" of Haiti and Forging Ties for Western Hemispheric Unity
18. The "Iron Logic" Between Military Capability and Quality of Life
19. A Farewell to Arms
20. The Fall of Security Ties with Russia
21. The Fall of Security Ties with Russia
22. The North Korean Policy Review: Triumph and Tragedy
23. Fiasco in Iraq: Then and Now
24. Former Cold Warrior Offer New Vision
25. The Way Forward: Hope for a World Without Nuclear Weapons

Editorial Reviews

"Perry, more technocrat than politician, emphasizes his efforts to prevent nuclear war in this sincere and nontriumphalist memoir."—Publishers Weekly

"William Perry's dedicated service to our nation spans generations, and this remarkable book documents a lifetime of achievements that have made America stronger and safer. In these pages, you will have an insider's look at the acute tensions of the Cold War and the expansive opportunities that emerged when it ended. Dr. Perry's experiences demonstrate why we must do everything we can to reduce the dangers of nuclear proliferation. You will be inspired by the impact that one gifted individual can have on the most pressing national security challenges that we face."—Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall

"Bill Perry has the highest A to E ratio (accomplishments to ego) of anyone I have ever known. His vision and foresight have made America safer, stronger and more secure. He has lived General Omar Bradley's dictum: 'The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.' Everyone interested in protecting the future of our nation and planet should read this book and learn from Bill's experience."—Former Senator Sam Nunn, Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative

"Perry's authoritative memoir...is a clear, sobering and, for many, surprising warning that the danger of a nuclear catastrophe today is actually greater than it was during that era of U.S.-Soviet competition.a significant and insightful memoir and a necessary read." —Mortimer B. Zuckerman, U.S. News & World Report

"In clear, detailed but powerful prose, Perry's new book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, tells the story of his seventy-year experience of the nuclear age. Beginning with his firsthand encounter with survivors living amid 'vast wastes of fused rubble' in the aftermath of World War II, his account takes us up to today when Perry is on an urgent mission to alert us to the dangerous nuclear road we are traveling."—Jerry Brown, The New York Review of Books

"Perry has long been one of the more strenuous advocates for confronting the dangers of the nuclear age, and his engaging memoir explains why."—Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

"William Perry's dedicated service to our nation spans generations, and this remarkable book documents a lifetime of achievements that have made America stronger and safer. In these pages, you will have an insider's look at the acute tensions of the Cold War and the expansive opportunities that emerged when it ended. Dr. Perry's experiences demonstrate why we must do everything we can to reduce the dangers of nuclear proliferation. You will be inspired by the impact that one gifted individual can have on the most pressing national security challenges that we face."

Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall

"Bill Perry has the highest A to E ratio (accomplishments to ego) of anyone I have ever known. His vision and foresight have made America safer, stronger and more secure. He has lived General Omar Bradley's dictum: 'The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.' Everyone interested in protecting the future of our nation and planet should read this book and learn from Bill's experience."

Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative - Former Senator Sam Nunn

"Perry has long been one of the more strenuous advocates for confronting the dangers of the nuclear age, and his engaging memoir explains why."

Foreign Affairs - Lawrence D. Freedman

"In clear, detailed but powerful prose, Perry's new book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, tells the story of his seventy-year experience of the nuclear age. Beginning with his firsthand encounter with survivors living amid 'vast wastes of fused rubble' in the aftermath of World War II, his account takes us up to today when Perry is on an urgent mission to alert us to the dangerous nuclear road we are traveling."

The New York Review of Books - Jerry Brown

"Perry, more technocrat than politician, emphasizes his efforts to prevent nuclear war in this sincere and nontriumphalist memoir."

Publishers Weekly

"Perry's authoritative memoir...is a clear, sobering and, for many, surprising warning that the danger of a nuclear catastrophe today is actually greater than it was during that era of U.S.-Soviet competition.a significant and insightful memoir and a necessary read."

U.S. News & World Report - Mortimer B. Zuckerman

2015-09-03
A methodical memoir of a long, top-level government career developing nuclear deterrence strategy. The former secretary of defense during President Bill Clinton's first term, as well as an accomplished Stanford University scholar, Perry straightforwardly tracks his life's journey in terms of a growing awareness that the only defense against nuclear attack is "to prevent the attack from happening." Too young to serve in World War II, the Pennsylvania-born math whiz was barely 18 when he enlisted as an Army engineer and observed firsthand the bombing devastation of postwar Japan. The rise of the Soviet missile threat defined his early years of graduate work at Stanford, which were followed by a job as a senior scientist at Sylvania's Electronic Defense Laboratories. An original entrepreneur in Silicon Valley with his own company, Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory, and dedicated to Cold War intelligence work using new digital technology, Perry was plucked by Harold Brown to serve as his undersecretary of defense for research and engineering in 1977. He gradually began to see that the old way of thinking about keeping up with the Soviets and ensuring an "offset strategy" was outdated, "a colossal failure of imagination." What was needed was diplomacy—e.g., dealing with China, NATO, and Israel-Egyptian peace talks at Camp David. A critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars, Perry actively participated in nongovernmental international diplomacy, Track II, to develop new paths of understanding with Russian scientists and academics. When he returned to Washington, D.C., in 1993, Perry was in a unique position to deal with the dismantling of nuclear weapons left as the legacy of the Cold War, enforced by Nunn-Lugar legislation. Perry recounts tackling one containment crisis after another during his tenure, from North Korea to Bosnia to Haiti. Having worked so hard to neutralize the Soviet-U.S. relationship, Perry is especially anguished at the new tension with Putin's Russia. Not an exciting account but a solid record of a terrifically significant public career.

Kirkus Reviews