Leo Szilard conceived of the possibility of nuclear fission
sustained by a chain reaction years before it was achieved in the
laboratory. He was also one of the initiators of the atomic bomb
project in the United States. Yet he dedicated his final years to
the causes of understanding and sustaining life. The eminent
physicist became a biologist and a vital force calling, for the
control of nuclear and other weapons.This book documents Szilard's
energetic attempts to influence public policy on arms control and
disarmament issues, both through open political processes and
statements and through behindthe-scenes contacts with Washington
power sources and a remarkable exercise in personal diplomacy with
Nikita Khrushchev.Many of the issues Szilard deals with in this
valuable record of the years 1947-1963 are still crucial today. His
opposition to antiballistic missile systems, his proposal for a
Washington-Moscow "hot line," his work on the Pugwash conferences
that brought together scientists from the East and the West, his
pivotal role in the creation of the Council for a Livable World,
his advocacy of a nuclear policy of no-first-use and restricted
retaliation, and his support of "minimum deterrence" in place of an
overwhelming counterforce capability - all these matters are as
important in the 1980s as they were in the 1950s and 1960s.Helen S.
Hawkins and G. Allen Greb are affiliated with the Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San
Diego. The late Gertrud Weiss Szilard also served as coeditor of
the first two volumes of her husband's work: The Collected Works of
Leo Szilard: Scientific Papers and Leo Szilard: His Version of the
Facts. Barton J. Bernstein is professor in the Department of
History, Stanford University.
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