The Nuclear Delusion: Soviet-American Relations in the Atomic Age

Reviewed by Andrew J. Pierre

Bringing together essays covering 30 years of writing on the nuclear issue, this volume is elegant testimony to the efforts of George Kennan toward making mankind aware of the danger and limited political utility of these weapons. Kennan has obviously been deeply troubled by the nuclear arms race, not least because of the way in which it has skewed relations with the East, and he of course believes that our vision of the Soviet Union has often been in error.