The Dangers of a Nuclear-Free World

Few people are more qualified to analyze nuclear arms strategy than the author, who served as Director of the CIA under President Richard Nixon, Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford and Energy Secretary under President Jimmy Carter. His assessment for TIME of what almost happened in Reykjavik:

"It was the nearest-run thing you ever saw." So remarked the Duke of Wellington after Waterloo. That might be the reaction in the West to the atmosphere of carefree utopianism that prevailed at Reykjavik prior to the summit's collapse. In that seductive environment, the President proposed the elimination of all ballistic missiles by...

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