Early one morning last week, the phone rang for Nikita Khrushchev at the elegant Chateau Rambouillet, country residence of France's Presidents. On the other end of the line was Soviet Ambassador to France Sergei Vinogradov with the news that France had just exploded in the Sahara its second atomic bomb—a small one, roughly the size of the U.S.'s Hiroshima bomb (20 kilotons), but far closer to being a portable, functional weapon than the first 60-to 70-kiloton French bomb.
As the world's most belligerent peace lover, and loud public opponent of all nuclear testing, could Nikita avoid denouncing France in...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
