My Journey at the Nuclear Brink

William Perry

• Publisher: Stanford Security Studies
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780804797122, 9780804796811
• eBook ISBN: 9780804797146
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• 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 a 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
• Color Plates
• 13. Dismantling Nuclear Weapons and Building the Legacy of Nunn-Lugar
• 14. The Crisis with North Korea: Containing an Emerging 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 Security
• 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. Seeking Common Ground with China, India, Pakistan, and Iran
• 22. The North Korean Policy Review: Triumph and Tragedy
• 23. Fiasco in Iraq: Then and Now
• 24. The Nuclear Security Project: Former “Cold Warriors” Offer a New Vision
• 25. A Way Forward: Hope for a World without Nuclear Weapons
• Notes
• Index