With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War [Hardcover]

Robert Scheer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1982

From the dust jacket: President Ronald Reagan had been in office less than a year when he approved a secret plan for the United States to prevail in a protracted nuclear war. This secret plan, outlined in a so-called National Security Decision Document committed the United States for the first time to the idea that a global nuclear war can be won. With these words Robert Scheer, the distinguished national reporter for the LOS ANGELES TIMES, begins this astonishing revelation of how a handful of Cold War ideologues-led by the President himself-have reversed the longstanding American assumption that nuclear war means mutual suicide. What Scheer shows is how American leaders have now chosen to fight and win a nuclear war-in fact, a protracted nuclear war with many nuclear exchanges-and how they expect that once such a war is won the United States will return to normal. The belief on which this strategy rests is that we are "living in a pre-war and not a post-war world", according to Eugene Rostow, the man Reagan appointed to head the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. According to this view, the Soviets, like Hitler, are bent on world conquest. Therefore the United States must meet this challenge with the determination to shrink the Soviet empire and fundamentally alter Soviet society.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394414829
• ISBN-13: 978-0394414829
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,301,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revelations Concerning Now's Neocons, December 4, 2006

By 

H. Moore "Plain Speaker" (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War (Hardcover)

I read Scheer's book when it first came out many, many years ago and was struck by the preposterous, but adamant, assertion by one of the lesser players: Richard Perle. Facts are not facts, but rather confirmation of a "world-view" of reality. A nugget of the book, and partly where the title comes from, is that Perle claimed that satellite photos of the Soviet Union showed mass-shoveling outside major cities. True enough. This meant--indeed was entirely inscrutable for any other reason unless--according to Perle, the Soviets believed that if the population dug shallow ditches and covered each other with dirt, then the Soviets would withstand the fall-out from nuclear conflagration. Such shoveling must therefore be practice for nuclear conflict, according to Mr. Perle. Thus, "With Enough Shovels" . . . I had never heard of Perle, but I graduated with a political science degree in the mid-70s. In studying the Soviet's failed economy, we learned of the failed food production and how the "masses" were harnessed to harvest potatoes and other root food stuffs to stave off food shortages [you need shovels to dig for such]. Perle knew nothing of what he was talking about. But that little slowed him from fantastic claims. Political quackery posing as incisive analysis of the evil empire. Amazing. Amazing. Nothing has changed.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a difference another Bush makes, January 12, 2003

By 

Elizabeth, the Traveler (Atlanta, Georgia) (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War (Paperback)

I happened on this book in January 2003 when we were not sure "if" and "when" we were being lnto Iraq, the week PBS replayed the 1996 Gulf War video in which Colin Powell said nuclear power was an option there. Suddenly this book sounds very scary, especially as the author emphasizes that he had reason to think from preelection interviews with Bush when he was running for president against Reagan, that Bush believed nuclear war was winnable. I have not checked out all of the facts, and the other reviewer here who questions them may have a point, but if the younger Bush is in fact heavily influenced by his father now, then we may be in for some frightening days ahead, and I a not happy to see Bush the son with the hand on the nuclear trigger.The book is facinating, especially written as it was just barely into Reagan's two terms."Evil empire""Axix of evil"Similar, aren't they ?

14 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars These guys ran our country for 12 years?, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War (Paperback)

Scheer shows how Reagan and Bush supported the small fringe of scientists who thought nuclear war winnable and actually bought into their theories. Let's be glad the Soviets started getting competent leaders like Gorby just as we were having a decline in our leadership talent. Scheer does a good job of utilizing information from the majority of the scientific community to show that nuclear war is just not "winnable" and thus should never be attempted. I guess following the ideas of an Einstein go against Reaganism.