Death Rays and Delusions

by Gerold Yonas, Jill Gibson (Contributor)

In “Death Rays and Delusions,” Dr. Gerold Yonas explains how he found himself thrust into a high stakes world of generals and politicians, international intrigue, multi-billion dollar budgets, laser beams and nuclear annihilation as he faced a mind-boggling assignment–creating a high-tech shield in space to defend America from attack.In this autobiographical narrative about the end of the Cold War, Yonas gives a firsthand account of the creation and evolution of the Star Wars beam weapon program. Having served as the first chief scientist and acting deputy director for Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as the “Star Wars” program, Yonas traces the strange, ironic and humorous events of his career as “Reagan’s Ray Gun.” He offers insight into the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the political, military and scientific machinations taking place in the background.Exploring a time characterized by chaos and confusion, politics and public relations, delusions and deceptions, Yonas reflects on the modern lessons from this era and shares his unique perspective on what happens when science and politics collide.

250 pages, Paperback

Published September 6, 2017

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never seen a bad review of it...

Not a lot of reviews either!

the only minus i would have about the book is that he seemed to think that if things went over perfectly at a Superpower Summit that the possibility of eliminating nuclear weapsons may have happenned.

Which i find to be much more than extremely likely!
I side with Kenneth Waltz that they'll be around forever, and we'll have to deal with a future where the nuclear club might mushroom into a few dozen, making things more dangerous again...

From what i've seen, it's a good insiders peek at some of the stuff going on then

[Seutonius X · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poor guy--from a very serious scientist at Sandia National Labs to politics and antics in the DC beltway. The author maintains a good sense of humor about his arc though!

One of my favorite parts is when he was asked to give speeches to the general public. In one instance a gentlemen from the crowd accuses him for working with (outer space) aliens!