cover image Danger and Survival

Danger and Survival

McGeorge Bundy. Random House (NY), $24.95 (735pp) ISBN 978-0-394-52278-4

Written by the controversial former special assistant for national security under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, this major work is essentially a political history of the superweapon era from the earliest atomic research to ``the false hope of future safety in Reagan's dream of a space shield.'' Bundy sheds light on the Cuban missile crisis, emphatically pointing out that nothing like it has occurred in the ensuing quarter-century. Although there have been conspicuous moments of superpower tension since, Bundy argues that the risk of all-out nuclear warfare has lessened with each succeeding decade as ``the tradition of non-use grows stronger.'' In his upbeat view, Washington and Moscow are learning to respect the nuclear danger and to practice, if not always preach, coexistence. Bundy also convincingly disputes several atomic myths, among them that President Truman delivered an atomic ultimatum in 1946 over the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Iran, and that Truman came close to using the bomb during the Korean War. (Nov.)