Return to Armageddon

Ronald Powaski is the author of The Cold War: The U.S. and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 and March to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1939-1987, both by OUP. He is an adjunct professor of history at Cleveland State University. He lives in Euclid, Ohio.

"An exhaustive yet engrossing account of two decades of effort to control the nuclear menace. The author details a painful process, buoyed by an occasional breakthrough--the elimination of intermediate range nuclear missiles under President Reagan and the substantial cut in tactical nuclear weapons under President Bush--but effectively blocked in the Clinton years by hostile Senate leadership and infatuation with the myth of missile defense."--Paul C. Warnke,former Director of U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency"This compact volume identifies the key themes and turning points in U.S. nuclear weapon and nuclear arms control policy over the past two decades, giving timely insight into the decisions that have kept the nuclear 'fate of the earth' hanging in the balance. A good source for students and journalists, and a fast-reading, illuminating history for any concerned citizen."--Randall Forsberg, Director, Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies"An accomplished historian of the nuclear arms race in its early years, Ronald Powaski has produced a thorough, up-to-date, and well-written study of the nuclear arms race during the last two decades of the twentieth century. He cogently analyzes U.S. policy in the 1980s and 1990s and assesses the risks of nuclear catastrophe in the coming years."--Peter L. Hahn, Ohio State University