Spying on the Bomb

by Richelson, Jeffrey T.

• ISBN13: 9780393053838
• ISBN10: 0393053830
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-01
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

A global history of U.S. nuclear espionage from its World War II origins to today's threats from rogue states. For fifty years, the United States has monitored friends and foes who seek to develop the ultimate weapon. Since 1952 the nuclear club has grown to at least eight nations, while others are making serious attempts to join. Each chapter chronologically focuses on the nuclear activities of one or more countries, intermingling what the United States believed was happening with accounts of what actually occurred in each country's laboratories, test sites, and decision-making councils. Jeffrey T. Richelson weaves recently declassified documents into his interviews with the scientists and spies involved in the nuclear espionage. The book reveals new information about U.S. intelligence work on the Soviet/Russian, French, Chinese, Indian, Israeli, and South African nuclear programs; on the attempts to solve the mysterious Vela Incident; and on current efforts to uncover the nuclear secrets of Iran and North Korea. The book also includes spy satellite photographs never before extracted from the national archives. 46 photographs, 6 maps.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	9	(2)
Preface	11	(6)
A Terrifying Prospect	17	(45)
Nazi Germany
Lightning Strikes	62	(43)
The Soviet Union 1945--1953
The View from Above	105	(32)
The Soviet Union 1954--1961
Mao's Explosive Thoughts	137	(58)
The People's Republic of China through 1968
An Elated General, A Smiling Buddha	195	(41)
France and India through 1974
``Pariahs''	236	(47)
Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan through the 1970s
The Double Flash	283	(34)
The Vela Incident: September 1979
Rogues	317	(43)
Iraq, North Korea, Libya, and Pakistan through 1991
``Pariahs'' Revisited	360	(41)
Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan in the 1980s and early 1990s
Big Bangs	401	(26)
French and Chinese testing; suspected Russian testing in the 1990s
Pokhran Surprise	427	(20)
Indian and Pakistani tests in May 1998
Inspectors and Spies	447	(23)
Iraq from the end of the Gulf War through December 1998
Flawed Intelligence	470	(33)
Iraq, 1999--2004
Trouble Waiting to Happen	503	(42)
Iran and North Korea, from the 1990s to today
Abbreviations and Acronyms	545	(4)
Acknowledgments	549	(2)
Notes	551	(122)
Index	673
Photographs Appear on Pages 171--186 and 381--396.