Shame

by Sam Cohen

It’s very rare for any single book to really stand out in terms of many crucially important unvarnished first-hand historical ‘reality checks’. Sam Cohen’s book Shame is one of those few remarkable exceptions. The principle themes and characteristics of Sam’s book 1. It’s an inspiring story of dogged triumph over considerable childhood psychological torment and medical adversity. 2. It’s a remarkable story of recognizing the right problem to solve, versus merely reinventing bigger conventional weapons in new technologies. The neutron bomb aimed at reducing the civilian slaughter that now characterizes large-scale war — conventional and otherwise. It makes the morally crucial and counterintuitive case that the neutron bomb is the most moral weapon ever invented, and is thus the best type of nuclear bomb ever invented. (Keep in mind the prior actual and continuing dependence on monster stockpiles of inherently indiscriminate civilian-slaughtering — and civilian life-support infrastructure destroying — city-obliterating bombs.) 3. It’s a one-man American Perestroika and Glasnost movement, which honestly shows how many high-profile credit-mongering “Cold Warriors” and Cold War institutions were generally groups of cynical political opportunists who actually (and often knowingly) undermined real national security in their greedy lust for power, glory, and profit. 4. It’s to the foreign policy, national security, and military-industrial establishments what Feynman’s myth-shattering activities were to NASA’s phony Challenger ‘investigation’ (doublespeak for ‘cover-up’). It’s an amazing chronicle of how a handful of remarkable people can sometimes prevail over enormously larger institutional packs of political animals dominated by self-serving groupthink. It puts on record the sort of ‘real world’ bureaucratic skullduggery that others will generally only speak about off the record, and often only after swearing you to secrecy. 5. It shows why George Washington’s foreign policy advice — far from being allegedly obsolete — is actually becoming increasingly more important with proliferating advances in smaller and more powerful weapons.

472 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 2000

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

take the book with a grain of salt
and three boxes of backup salt
just
don't salt with cobalt whatever you do

Sam Cohen retired after a long controversial career in nuclear weapon issues. During World War II he was assigned to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. After the war he joined the RAND Corporation as a nuclear weapon analyst. In the course of his work he developed the technical/military concept of the ‘neutron bomb’ in 1958. He has consulted with the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear weapon laboratories, the U.S. Air Force, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has authored numerous articles and books on nuclear issues.

[Ducks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not an easy read, I wouldn’t say it is well written. But it is a view I hadn’t previously considered. It challenges notions I had/have about morality and I found it to be an emotionally complicated book. If you’re interested in the topic I think it’s worth a read, but be prepared it isn’t written by a writer.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is 30 years old now, but has some useless information. This guy also had the idea for what ( now ) is the ' flash - bang ' grenade ( very popular ) He suggested the idea for use in Vietnam , but , it wasn't put into use because it was ' inhumane ' ...

[Gwern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.