Weapons of Mass Destruction: The no-nonsense guide to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons today

Weapons of Mass Destruction: The no-nonsense guide to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons today
ISBN-10
1780223773
ISBN-13
9781780223773
Series
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Category
History
Pages
304
Language
English
Published
2011-12-29
Publisher
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Author
Robert Hutchinson

Description

A history of weapons of mass destruction from the First World War to the Gulf War - and beyond. When Tom Lehrer sang 'We'll all go together when we go', the world was gripped by fear of nuclear holocaust: the ultimate endgame of every Cold War powerplay. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the threat was assumed to have gone away. But Libya, Iraq, Iran and North Korea are building weapons of mass destruction. The next live Scud missile launch could signal the next Hiroshima. Robert Hutchinson investigates the history of weapons of mass destruction, from biological warfare during World War I to the atomic weapons of World War II and the Cold War. He reveals that Russia did indeed build the 'Doomsday' nuclear missile system featured in DR STRANGELOVE, but not until the 1980s: and it is still switched on! Chemical weapons remain the 'poor man's nuke'. And as the attack on the Tokyo subway demonstrated, weapons of mass destruction are now available to terrorist organizations as well as 'rogue' nation states.

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