Lee C Carpenter 
Memoirs of a Cold Warrior 

As Russia re-asserts itself on the global stage, and now the Peoples Republic of China, too, a look back at the hard, cold facts of the Cold War may improve Americans’A’ understanding of our relative strengths and weaknesses and the continuing vulnerability of our primacy in the world.A defense analyst who served on the frontlines of the struggle for military parity, the author was party to the steps taken by US military, technical and industrial groups to assess, counter, and of course to seek to outperform Moscow throughout the Cold War, until the "collapse" of the Soviet Union, from 1950 to 1989. The race was a close one, and the US was not always in the lead.In fact, the author’s expert analysis established, beyond reasonable doubt, that the USSR could destroy 95 % of the US strategic targets in less than one hour by December 1981. Contrary to President Johnson’s assurances to the public, there had indeed been a missile gap, and the author is the man who quantified it.At the same time, he analyzed numerous schemes regarding the placement of Nike missile defenses etc., and found that many such proposals were unworkable, exorbitantly costly, and bound to be ineffective for obvious technical reasons. Many defense projects, he demonstrates, are undertaken for US domestic political reasons or to boost careers; instead of enhancing our nation’s strength, they sap funds and attention from what might be better solutions.This book narrates the 40-year struggle to achieve strategic parity in a nuclear world and chronicles the rivalries within and among the corporate, military and government bodies that flourished during that battle.