Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-265) and index.
Contents
Introduction : War in peace -- pt. 1. The making of bomb power -- Fatal miracle -- Atomic politics -- The care and keeping of the bomb -- pt. 2. The national security state -- Beginnings (1945-1946) -- Annus mirabilis (1947) -- Completing the apparatus (1948-1952) -- pt. 3. Presidential wars -- Korea -- Permanent emergency -- pt. 4. Information power -- Secrecy as embarrassment cover -- Secrecy as Congress deceiver -- Secrecy as policy disabler -- Secrecy as crime concealer -- pt. 5. Executive usurpations -- "War powers" -- Challenging secrecy -- The unitary executive -- American monarch.
Summary
Assesses the role of the atomic bomb in altering the nature of American democracy, tracing the secrecy of the Manhattan Project, the ways the bomb changed the institution of the presidency, and the state of war alert that has existed since its invention.
