Hotter Than the Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Scott Horton interviews Daniel Ellsberg, Seymour Hersh, Gar Alperovitz, Hans Kristensen, Joe Cirincione and more.

by Scott Horton

This book contains interviews conducted over more than a decade with experts of all descriptions — including Daniel Ellsberg, Seymour Hersh, Gar Alperovitz, Hans Kristensen, Gordon Prather, Joe Cirincione and more — about the threat of nuclear war between major and minor powers, the nuclear arms-industrial complex, the nuclear programs and weapons of the so-called “rogue states” of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel and North Korea, the bitter truths and eternal lessons of America’s nuclear bombing of Japan in World War II and the dedicated activists working to abolish the bomb for all time.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

443 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 9, 2022

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nearly eighty years ago, a single B-29 bomber flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a single bomb, baptizing humanity into a dark new era once the blinding white glow had ended. In the fifties and sixties, the amount of nuclear weapons soared to absurd numbers — an estimate of 70,000 bombs between the two powers. While the number of nuclear arms has fallen since the height of the Cold War, governments still possess more than enough to destroy the world many times over — whether through deliberate stupidity and malice, or through broken-arrow incidents, and three powers (DC, Russia, and China) are actively expanding and sinking their wealth into means of global death. Given that two conflicts are currently raging that could easily escalate to catastrophe, it’s never been more important to attack this existential threat. Scott Horton, who has been host of Antiwar Radio and conducted thousands of interviews since 1999, here offers transcripts of those interviews that have a nuclear connection — either because they discuss weaponry and treaties directly, or because they delve into geopolitical issues that might serve as a flashpoint. The guests include former war planners like Daniel Ellsberg, nuclear industry engineers and publishers, US army scientists, and foreign-policy experts. Although not a conventional narrative, it’s a fascinating and varied blend of politics, history, and technical analysis.

A key recurring theme here is that any use of nuclear weapons poses a threat to the entire population of Earth, either through damage to the atmosphere, radioactive drift, or — in the case of escalation — a global holocaust followed by a nuclear winter that will kill all life on earth except for cockroaches and Raytheon lobbyists. Given this, it’s insane that governments are not only moving to a first-strike posture (i.e. we’ll launch on the threat of a launch, not merely in retaliation) and to systems that can respond automatically. Given the state of the United States and Russia, it’s dismaying and enraging to realize how many billions are being thrown at new whizz-bang systems when the means already exist to destroy humanity multiple times over. A second key point is that the military-industrial complex and politicians connected to it are deeply invested in maintaining and expanding nuclear arms. Obviously, a firm that has ungodly amounts of money sunk into creating nuclear weapons doesn’t want governments to suddenly stop buying them, and even if they weren’t finding ways to compensate politicians directly through electoral donations and the like, those politicians still rely on the MIC to provide jobs for the people who vote them in. The interviews span nearly twenty years, which allows for some interesting and often frustrating perspectives. Horton and several guests were excited about Senator Obama’s frequent mentions of the need for nuclear disarmament, but later — whoops! — now Mr. Peace Prize is authorizing billions to ‘modernize’ DC’s armageddon arsenal. A lot of interviews are set around the original Ukraine crisis in 2014, which itself is the reason for the current war. This was an extremely informative book across multiple fields: I’d never heard of the ‘nuclear sponge’ principle, for instance, in which the plains states were chosen to site major ICBM locations in hopes that the Soviets would prioritize nuking them over American cities. And they say DC never thinks about flyover country! In addition to examining various geopolitical factors that lead to international tension and the possibility of nuclear war — Iran and Israel, India and Pakistan, and so on — Horton and his guests also discuss at length the culpability of DC in making tensions worse, either by scrapping existing treaties (W, Trump) or shoving missiles deeper and deeper into Eurasia (Everybody…) On the bright side, we do get to witness moments like Reagan and Gorbachev dramatically reducing nuclear stocks (and coming very close to discussing total disarmament), and I was surprised to learn that many high-ranking military officials (Eisenhower, MacArthur, and even Curtis LeMay) were against the bombing of Hiroshima, seeing it as morally rephensible and militarily unnecessary. Given that MacArthur and LeMay were both willing use the Bomb with gusto during the Korean war, that says something about how cold-bloodedly malicious the Autumn ’45 bombings were.

Unfortunately, in the present climate, it’s unlikely any progress will be made, as there are no strident disarmament voices on either side, even from anti-war figures like Paul and Massie. That makes this a grim book to finish — but it’s chock full of interesting information, and is easily my favorite of Horton’s published transcripts books. Do check out his podcast if you’ve any interest in world affairs, geopolitics, or DC’s foreign policy. Scott has two books on the Terror War: one focusing on Afghanistan, the other on the war in general.

[Goodi]

Very focused with no ideological baggage. There is no "if you think X you also have think Y" or "if you don't think A then you're a bad B". It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe, you will read this book and come away with the same conclusion as everyone else - that there is no good reason to keep these weapons around.