My Journey at the Nuclear Brink
By William J. PerrySTANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2015 William J. Perry
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-9681-1
Contents
Foreword by George P. Shultz,
Preface,
Acknowledgments,
Abbreviations,
1. The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Nuclear Nightmare,
2. A Fire in the Sky,
3. The Rise of the Soviet Missile Threat and the Race for Data to Understand It,
4. An Original Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and the Advance of Spy Technology,
5. A Call to Serve,
6. Implementing the Offset Strategy and the Emergence of Stealth Technology,
7. Buildup of the US Nuclear Force,
8. Nuclear Alerts, Arms Control, and Missed Opportunities in Nonproliferation,
9. The Undersecretary as a Diplomat,
10. Back in Civilian Life: The Cold War Ends, but the Nuclear Journey Continues,
11. A Return to Washington: The New Challenge of "Loose Nukes" and the Lurching Reform of Defense Acquisition,
12. I Become Secretary of Defense,
13. Dismantling Nuclear Weapons and Building the Legacy of Nunn-Lugar,
14. The Crisis with North Korea: Containing an Emerging Nuclear State,
15. Ratifying Start II and Battling over the Test Ban Treaty,
16. NATO, Peacekeeping in Bosnia, and the Rise of Security Ties with Russia,
17. The "Immaculate Invasion" of Haiti and Forging Ties for Western Hemispheric Security,
18. The "Iron Logic" between Military Capability and Quality of Life,
19. A Farewell to Arms,
20. The Fall of Security Ties with Russia,
21. Seeking Common Ground with China, India, Pakistan, and Iran,
22. The North Korean Policy Review: Triumph and Tragedy,
23. Fiasco in Iraq: Then and Now,
24. The Nuclear Security Project: Former "Cold Warriors" Offer a New Vision,
25. A Way Forward: Hope for a World without Nuclear Weapons,
Notes,
Index,
Photo Gallery,
CHAPTER 1The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Nuclear Nightmare
It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
— President John F. Kennedy, nationwide broadcast, 22 October 1962
My phone rang on a beautiful fall day in 1962, just a week after I had celebrated my thirty-fifth birthday. I was the director of Sylvania's Electronic Defense Laboratories, which pioneered in sophisticated electronic reconnaissance systems directed at Soviet nuclear weapons systems. I was living with my wife, Lee, and our five children in a beautiful home in Palo Alto, California, near the picturesque San Francisco Bay. Life was good. But it was about to be turned upside-down.
The phone call was from Albert "Bud" Wheelon, my colleague on high-level government panels to assess Soviet nuclear capabilities. Wheelon, also in his thirties, was the youngest-ever head of the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence, as well as chairman of the Guided Missile and Astronautics Intelligence Committee (GMAIC), an expert group reviewing all intelligence on the Soviet missile and space programs. He asked me to fly to Washington to consult with him, and I told him that I would rearrange my schedule and fly back the following week. "No," he said, "I need to see you right away." His sense of urgency alarmed me. Our country was deep in a spiraling nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, which just the previous year had broken the nuclear test ban to detonate their "monster" 50-megaton bomb. I took the nigh
