Living with Peril

Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nuclear Weapons

By (author) Andreas Wenger Contributions by NEEDS CONTRIBUTORS

Hardback - £131.00

Publication date:

02 July 1997

Length of book:

448 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

234x163mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780847685141

Living with Peril explains in detail how the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations adapted to the reality of a Soviet nuclear force capable of destroying the United States and against which there was no effective defense. Wenger illuminates the development, implementation, and evolution of U.S. government policies designed to avoid war and to respond to the vulnerability of nuclear destruction. Drawing from a wealth of sources, Wenger provides an insightful and original perspective on the origins of cold war nuclear diplomacy. This is crucial reading for students and scholars of international relations, peace and conflict studies, and diplomatic history.
During the presidential administrations of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy the United States slipped from a position of massive nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union to one of perceived mutual vulnerability. Drawing extensively upon archival materials, Andreas Wenger, a leading young Swiss analyst of world politics, argues that these were the decisive years of the nuclear era, the years when the most