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The Doomsday Machine - by Daniel Ellsberg |
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- By Hawkeye7
Daniel Ellsberg is best known as the whistle-blower who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers have been the subject of a recent film, The Post. Early in this book Ellsberg reveals that the Pentagon Papers were only a part of the top-secret material that he purloined and intended to reveal. Most were related to the United States' nuclear war making capabilities. Photocopies of the documents were placed in a box in a green garbage bag and cunningly hidden at the local council tip by his brother Harry. I won't spoil it for you by revealing what happened, but the documents became lost.
Now Ellsberg has attempted to write the book he wanted to write from memory, and from books and documents uncovered by others. The result is highly engaging and readable, clearly intended to be widely read, and therefore stripped of Pentagon lingo whenever possible. How much is new depends on how familiar you are with the subject. Moreover, he wrote a memoir back in 2002 called Secrets, and some parts of this book are lifted from it. There's also the odd trifling error, such as confusing the B-1 and B-70 bombers. My guess, though, is that most members of the general public will find what is contained in the book to be wholly new, as it contradicts much of what has been said in public for many years.
Much of this relates to the nature of the US strategic deterrent, including, but not restricted to: who has the authorisation to launch a nuclear strike, and who has information about war plans and intelligence. Frankly, I would be very surprised to learn that any President since Roosevelt had appropriate clearance. Nor, despite the efforts of Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, has much information been leaked to the Department of Defense or Congress. Those who have never handled classified information may be interested in descriptions of how it is handled; those who have will empathise with the trials of someone possessing important information, but unable to persuade others because the source and nature of that information is above their clearance.
Highly recommended.
Publishing details: Ellsberg, Daniel (2017). The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. New York; London: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 978-1-60819-670-8. OCLC 968158870.
Recent external reviews |
Pells, Ismini, ed. (2016). New Approaches to the Military History of the English Civil War: Proceedings of the First Helion And Company 'Century of the Soldier' Conference, 2015. Solihull, UK: Helion. ISBN 1911096443.
- Bennett, Martyn (2018). "Ismini Pells, (Ed.). New Approaches to the Military History of the English Civil War". British Journal for Military History. 4 (2): 183–184.
Bilby, Joseph G. (2017). New Jersey: A Military History. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme. ISBN 1594162778.
- Nofi, A.A. (31 January 2018). "New Jersey: A Military History, by Joseph G. Bilby". Strategypage.
Phillips, Christopher (2016). The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195187237.
- Forney, Andy (February 2018). "Review of Phillips, Christopher, The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border". H-War, H-Net Reviews.
Perry, Roland (2017). Monash & Chauvel: How Australia's Two Greatest Generals Changed the Course of World History. Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760291433.
- Sexton, Michael (8 February 2018). "Monash & Chauvel review: Roland Perry on the impact of Australian WWI generals". The Sydney Morning Herald.
Rankin, Nicholas (2017). Defending the Rock: How Gibraltar Defeated Hitler. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571307701.
- Jack, Ian (22 March 2018). "Good Old Gib". The New York Review of Books.
Shakespeare, Nicholas (2017). Six Minutes in May : How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister. London: Harvill Secker. ISBN 1846559731.
Kiszely, John (2017). Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1107194598.
- Loosley, Stephen (10 March 2018). "From the bookshelf: 'Six minutes in May' and 'Anatomy of a campaign'". The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Twomey, Christina (2018). The Battle Within: POWs in postwar Australia. Sydney: NewSouth. ISBN 9781742235684.
- Hyland, Tom (8 March 2018). "War's Long Shadow". Inside Story.
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