[NUCLEAR WAR] KAHN, Herman

On Thermonuclear War

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960. First Edition. Octavo. 24cm. Publisher's terracotta cloth titled and ruled in black and gilt to spine. Dustjacket. [xx]; 651pp. Very light wear and bumping to spine ends and extremities, strong and bright; internally clean and fresh; in a grey dustjacket with some minor edgewear and shallow chipping to the spine ends and edges, a hint of toning to the spine panel, and some light soiling and wear to the white rear panel. A very good, handsome copy indeed.

Kahn's deeply influential analysis of the spectre of thermonuclear war, partly intended as a counterpoint to von Neumann's apocalyptic concept of MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction. Kahn posits the strategic possibility of a 'winnable' nuclear conflict, questions the solidity of a peace structure based on thermonuclear threat, and makes the highly controversial (for the time) suggestion that the spectre of thermonuclear conflict itself isn't actually that terrifying, and that the spectre of it is really what most people get worked up about. Kahn is an analytical strategist, his conclusions are based in a zone in which emotion only plays the smallest part, and upon publication the book elicited some powerful reactions from readers uncomfortable with the potential (at the time, inevitable) deaths of millions being presented in the form of graphs and calm, inexorable strategic detachment. Hubert Humphrey's contemporary review of the work stated "New thoughts, particularly those which contradict current assumptions, are always painful for the human mind to contemplate. On Thermonuclear War is filled with such thoughts."

Perhaps as inevitable antidote to the grimly sardonic nature of his analysis, Kahn's work earned him a place in the eternal halls of pop culture, being the impromptu scriptwriter for the character of General Buck Turgidson in "Dr. Strangelove", and with popular understanding of his theories featuring prominently in fiction from Tom Clancy to "Wargames." Kahn is also credited with the coining of the phrases "Megadeath" (as a unit of fatality), and "Wargasm" (describing the focus of the military personnel he worked with), both of which have seeped into common usage. Kahn's borderline crude delivery, combining horrifying statistics with jokes about how women will come to love their two-headed babies, was deliberately jarring and intended to be equally disruptive to those locked in fearful uninformed paralysis, and those working towards the wargasm. The reception of his book was one of the catalyzing elements that led Kahn to be a co-founder of The Hudson Institute, after his work at RAND reached its inevitable close. Regardless of how divisive Kahn was both in theory and delivery, "On Thermonuclear War" ranks as one of the most important 20th century works of strategic analysis, right down to the title being an updated and expanded nod to von Clausewitz's "On War."

Price: $500.00

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