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Congress And Nuclear Weapons

James M. Lindsay
Reviewed by By Gregory F. Treverton
Fall 1991
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James M. Lindsay
The Johns Hopkins University Press
1991
205 pp.

This careful examination of how Congress reaches decisions on major nuclear systems, including a clutch of specific case studies, comes to a conclusion that is a welcome antidote: "pork"-jobs in one's district-matters, and Congress gives presidents what they ask for, if they are determined; yet substance also counts. Indeed, "what best explains congressional decision making are the personal policy preferences of individual members."

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