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The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex, Revised and Updated Edition | 
| Author: Helen Caldicott
Publisher: New Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Rating:  30 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 1565848780
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.02170973
EAN: 9781565848788
ASIN: 1565848780
Publication Date: April 2004
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Book Description
A biting denunciation of current US weapons policies by the world's leading antinuclear activist, In a new, expanded edition. This revised edition includes a new introduction that outlines the costs of operation Iraqi Freedom, details the companies profiting from the war and subsequent reconstruction, and chronicles the rampant conflicts of interest among members of the Bush administration who also have a financial stake in weapons manufacturing. After eight printings in the original edition, The New Nuclear Danger remains a singularly persuasive antidote to war and its horrific costs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 A sobering look . February 20, 2008
Scripture Studier (WI,USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dr.Caldicott's book is an eye-opener about military spending and more troubling,the pollution associated with the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
She answers the question "who runs the Congress?"
Transnational corporations do it through think tanks,corporate mergers,lobbying,and political contributions.
"The right-wing think tanks almost alone created the new conservative movement of the 1970's."-page 25.
The author discusses the use of and health affects from uranium weapons in the Gulf War.
To understand the enormous defense budget it helps to know who some of the decision makers are and their corporate alliance.
Lynn Cheney was formerly a board member for Lockheed Martin. Of course Dick Cheney was with Halliburton and that's well known.
Bruce Jackson,vice-president of corporate strategy and development for Lockheed Martin wrote the Republican party's foreign policy platform.
Steven Hadley has ties to that corporation also.
She does discuss "the Vulcans" in minor detail with some governmental history about Donald Rumsfeld that was interesting.
The major issue I took away from reading this book is the ecological pollution from nuclear weapons and the potential long range problems from it.
 a chilling analysis of our world June 12, 2007
Mark H. Gaffney (Chiloquin, OR USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The most striking observation about Helen Caldocott's book is that what she warned about in 2002 has come to pass in 2007. Turn on the TV and you will hear the nightly reports about the new Cold War -- but how did this happen?
For the answers read Caldicott's book. Did you ever wonder why, for example, Bill Clinton expanded NATO into eastern Europe? What Americans need to understand is that it had nothing to do with national security. Acccording to Caldicott Geo Bush Sr. made a deal with Gorbachev at the end of the Cold War. Bush promised not to expand NATO into eastern Europe if Russia (USSR) allowed the reunification of Germany, and abided by the SALT agreements. Russia held up its end of the deal, but Clinton renegged.
Why? Simple: The big arms manfacturers like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dyamics, TRW etc viewed eastern Europe as a huge new market -- and spent millions lobbying for an expanded NATO. The US arms industry is the world's largest. (The only thing more profitable than selling arms is drug smuggling.)
In the 1990s America and Clinton had a historic opportunity to chart a new direction after the Cold War. Clinton should have given the Pentagon firm direction to disarm. He should also have given the national weapons labs (Los Alamos, Sandia. Lawrence etc) a new mission, namely, to solve the energy crisis in order to wean us away from oil into a new era of clean and abundant solar and other energy alternatives. Unfortunately, it didn't happen.
Here real leadership would have made the difference -- but Clinton failed to rise to the challenge. Caldicott's brutal assessment will make Democrats uncomfortable but it has the ring of truth. She says Clinton was weak and she has it right. I would go even further: I fault Bill for having no principles. (And now Hillary aspires to the same role. Give me a break! Haven't we been there already and done that?)
Bill Clinton thus allowed the expansion of NATO into eastern Europe -- not for national security reasons but to line the pockets of a very few. Nor was it in the interest of Europe or the world. The poor nations of eastern Europe needed to spend what little capital they had on rebuilding their infrastructure and improving the lives of their people. But we pressured them to buy Amercan weapons (we promised in return to support their bid to join the EU).
It was clearly the devil's bargain and set ther stage for Bush Jr and everything that has happened, since. Even as I write Geo W. prepares to install star wars radar and other related facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic. One can't read Caldicott'sbook without a feeling of "I told you so."
Which brings me to the bottom line. The US Constitution gives Congress the authority over commerce but today Wall Street bankers and the arms industry have done an end run around our founding document. Today they dictate both US Foreign and domestic policy. The result is a destabilized world that is increasingly armed to the teeth. What brings this home is knowing that every time a US soldier dies in Iraq our current leaders (such as they are) and their cronies in the arms industry are profitting. Obviously, they have no incentive to create the conditions for a more peaceful world. In fact, just the opposite is the case. We prepare for war to fight the next one -- not to build peace. Meawhile, the doomsday clock is ticking.
Will Americans wake up and take back their country before it is too late? That is for us to decide. By all means, READ THIS BOOK!
 Incredibly misleading April 12, 2005
C. Macdonald (Graz)
14 out of 43 found this review helpful
In this book, Helen Caldicott presents her view of the continuing nuclear dangers facing the world. As a student of nuclear proliferation issues, I read it with interest. I was very disappointed, however. Ms. Caldicott presents a biased, misleading picture of the issues facing the world.
I was particularly struck by her discussion of missile defense systems. After repeating the normal litany of technical problems facing NMD, she goes on to argue that the fissile material from a disabled warhead would contaminate an area where it lands. I assume she feels a thermonuclear explosion would be more environmentally sound. Shockingly dishonest passages like this are littered throughout what amounts to little more than a shrill tirade against the nuclear and military industries. I share Ms. Caldicott's hope for a nuclear-free world, but I feel that the public is better served by reasoned, honest accounts and not propaganda. Someone interested in counterproliferation would be advised to look into Sagan and Waltz's "The Spread of Nuclear Weapons" or Kurt Campbell's "The Nuclear Tipping Point". Don't waste your money here.
"There she goes again......" June 20, 2004
John P. Dagirmanjian (Phoenix, AZ United States)
18 out of 108 found this review helpful
She was wrong then, and she's wrong now. Just as Helen Caldicott was wrong about a nuclear freeze in the 1980's, she's wrong about the fight against terrorism now. Does anyone really take seriously the thoughts of an appeaser who would rather let terrorist enemies run over us than go after them forcefully as we should?
Admirers may point to her Nobel Peace Prize, but just remember, Yasir Arafat, a terrorist, won a Nobel Peace prize as well. The award really isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Silly, naive, foolish - it's as simple as that.
Nuclear Madness Explained by a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee May 19, 2004
Stephen Pletko (London, Ontario, Canada)
38 out of 50 found this review helpful
+++++
The heart of this well-referenced, easy-to-read book (with very informative appendices), by Dr. Helen Caldicott, is about two substances or two chemical elements:
(1) Plutonium (Pu)
(2) Uranium (U)
There are two types or isotopes of plutonium of primary importance:
(1) Pu-239
(2) Pu-238
Pu-239 is used in nuclear weapons and reactors. Pu-238 is used as a nuclear power source especially in space probe exploration. Both types of Pu cause severe health consequences when there is exposure to them via various means such as by radiation. Note that Pu-238 has been called "the most dangerous material on Earth." One pound of Pu-239 "is almost the most carcinogenic [cancer-causing] substance known to the human race."
There are two types of uranium of importance in nuclear reactions:
(1) U-235
(2) U-238 (more common)
U-235 is also used in nuclear weapons and ammunition. U has to be processed and there are medical risks associated with processing it. Both types of U cause severe health consequences when there is exposure to them via various means such as by radiation.
A large part of this book deals with nuclear weapons covering such topics as the following: their components, how they work, their testing, the newer and more efficient ones being made, the aging of nuclear weapons, and the deadly consequences of what happens if nuclear weapons are used. (Caldicott devotes an entire chapter to "The Reality of Nuclear War.") It "has [been] documented how more than 1.3 billion people have been killed, sickened, or maimed by nuclearism over the past 55 years, and how pollution from nuclear weapons operations has drastically changed the global environment and endangered all life forms."
Caldicott presents many examples of innocent people (including children) that now have serious or hopeless medical conditions as a result of being exposed to nuclear radiation through such means as working with and handling nuclear substances, conflict where uranium ammunition is used, and nuclear waste that contaminates food and water sources.
This book, I feel, has its greatest impact when it discusses nuclear accidents. I think most enlightened people are aware that there could be an accidental nuclear war set off by something as simple as the "launch of a weather balloon" and possibly resulting in the "annihilation of the planet." But other types of accidents are possible. For example, in 1964 "a [U.S.] satellite with a...plutonium power system crashed. Some 2.1 pounds of plutoniun-238 were dispersed around the world. A report prepared in 1989...stated that, "a worldwide sampling program carried out in 1970 showed [this contamination] to be present at all continents and all latitudes." Another example closer to where I live: "The most serious Russian nuclear space accident occurred in 1978 when a [Russian] satellite carrying a nuclear reactor smashed into the Northwest Territories of Canada. Sizable amounts of radioactive debris were distributed over [many thousands of miles]...[The resulting] carcinogenic, radioactive particles posed a serious risk to the population, because they could be either inhaled or ingested through the food chain."
The frightening thing is that as more countries acquire nuclear technology and know-how and, as well, as more countries attempt to join the "space race," the potential for increased nuclear accidents increases dramatically.
Another interesting aspect of this book is how the military, corporate-industrial, and political spheres are intertwined and support nuclearism. (Caldicott names specific corporations and politicians.) As a result, tremendous amounts of money are spent on U.S. military programs, money that could be used probably more effectively in non-military areas.
Near the end of the book, Caldicott states the following:
"America has the power and resources to reverse global warming, to save the ozone layer, to prevent chemical pollution, to stop deforestation, to curb the human overpopulation problem...The money that [the American government] invests in killing must now be redirected urgently to the preservation of life. America must rise to its full moral and spiritual height to reach its intended destiny--the nation that saved the world.
In a similar vein, the people of Europe must resist the constant call from America to arm and re-arm. So too, the people of Canada, of Austrailia--and indeed the people of the world. We cannot continue to behave as primitive animals killing for pleasure, killing for money, killing for religious imperatives, killing for greed and territorial imperative. Conflict resolution and peacekeeping must be our new priorities."
(Some people see the solutions in the above two paragraphs as unrealistic. How are they unrealistic?)
There are a few inaccuracies in this book. However, because the overall message is so important, I found it easy to ignore these minor inaccuracies.
In conclusion, this is a powerful book with a powerful message. In 1985, the late two-time Nobel Prize winner (once for chemistry, once for peace) Dr. Linus Pauling nominated Dr. Caldicott for a Nobel Peace Prize. After I read this book, I understood why he nominated her!!
+++++
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