U.S. presidential elections periodically offer a dramatic choice rather than an echo. This was Barry Goldwater’s campaign slogan in 1964 against Lyndon Baines Johnson. Voters chose LBJ in a landslide. Lop-sided victories are the usual outcome when two starkly different choices face U.S. voters in presidential contests. Think of Nixon vs. McGovern, or Hoover vs. FDR. …
Close Calls
by | 2012-10-30 | 23 Comments
I have a special Halloween column up at Foreign Policy on various nuclear crisis, accidents and other near-catastrophes. As I said in the opening piece, I was struck at how much I remember correctly – but also how many things I didn’t know. I am sure there will be a little error here or there, …
Neutron Letter Bombs
by | 2012-10-30 | 1 Comment
I was reading back issues of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists as part of a student-led effort on China’s development of the neutron bomb. I was particularly struck by an article by Harold Agnew entitled, “A Primer on Enhanced Radiation Weapons.” Agnew’s article is a model of clarity. It is marred only by the slightest …
The Battle of the Khans
by | 2012-10-27 | 16 Comments
There was no love lost between Munir Ahmad Khan and A.Q. Khan. Munir was chosen by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to ramp up the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission’s work on nuclear weapons. AQ offered his services to Bhutto from Europe, and was tasked with collecting useful plans for manufacturing centrifuges. When AQ arrived in Pakistan, he …
