Rating: 
Summary: "There she goes again......"
Review: She was wrong then, and she's wrong now. Just as Helen Caldicott was wrong about a nuclear freeze in the 1980's, she's wrong about the fight against terrorism now. Does anyone really take seriously the thoughts of an appeaser who would rather let terrorist enemies run over us than go after them forcefully as we should?
Admirers may point to her Nobel Peace Prize, but just remember, Yasir Arafat, a terrorist, won a Nobel Peace prize as well. The award really isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Silly, naive, foolish - it's as simple as that.
Rating: 
Summary: Voice of Wisdom
Review: This book is an attempt to wake up Americans to how close we are to a nuclear war. Dr. Caldicott has been involved in the anti-nuclear war cause for 30 years as a Noble Peace Prize nominee and is one of most influential woman of the 20th Century. Her claim that she has never seen a time of more danger from nuclear war than now, must be a red flag and wake-up call to everyone who wants to defend the future of humanity. This book educates and cuts through the political rhetoric of the present Bush Administration, to a frightening reality of how easy it would be and has become for all of us to end up as burnt toast. After reading it, I fear for the future of today's children especially. We will have to evolve to overcome the threat of nuclear war, or die...
Rating: 
Summary: Important book
Review: This is a very important book to read. The author is able to present her point of view in a fairly objective manner, although obviously a little one-sided. I wont go into details on the book, it needs to be read cover to cover for maximum effectiveness. Basically, it traces the U.S.'s nuclear development from the Reagan Adminstration to the present mess we are in. The only reason the book didnt get a 5 was because on the version of the book I have, the 2004 version, the cover has a picture of Bush and his buddies on the front. By no means am I a Bush supporter, rather the opposite, but I fear that this picture may keep the more conservative supporters of Bush from looking at, let alone reading the book. Most of them wouldn't even take the time to see that the author is a doctor and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Im worried that it will interfere with getting the message out to the people that really need to hear it most. That aside, this is an excellent book and is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A chilling call to action
Review: When Dwight D. Eisenhower left the presidency in 1961, he issued a famous warning: "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence . . . by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process." Just how prophetic Eisenhower's words were is documented in passionate clarity by Dr. Helen Caldicott in The New Nuclear Danger. She demonstrates in chilling detail how the American military-industrial complex, with the willing help of the Congress and a series of administrations, shrugged off the end of the Cold War and seized on the fallout from 9-11 to cement its hold on our government, our lives, and our futures. The U.S. is now spending far more on the military than we were during the height of the Cold War, and much of that on new or "improved" nuclear weapons. Nobody doubts that Caldicott is a fierce and passionate advocate of arms reduction, de-militarization, and of making "conflict resolution and peacekeeping our new priorities." What gives this book enormous weight and impact is the immense amount of factual research she presents to support her views. The book is full of hard information about the giant companies that comprise the military-industrial complex, their leaders, and their financial, political and personal links with the government. It's also replete with details about the grossly expensive and enormously threatening weapons systems currently being developed, many in contravention to the arms control treaties that once seemed to give us hope of limiting or controlling the proliferation and spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. This book, more than anything I have read, makes sense of our foreign policy. If in fact Washington is as profoundly influenced by, in the pockets of, and, increasingly, advised and staffed at the highest levels by representatives of the arms industry, our aggressive stance toward the rest of the world, our apparent contempt for arms control treaties, and our go-it-alone attitude all make perfect sense. One of the most worrisome points Caldicott makes is that the billions currently being spent on the "Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program" are not simply keeping our thousands of nuclear weapons in working order, but are being used for the research and development of entirely new kinds of nuclear weapons. Another is reminding us that the Bush administration's full-court-press towards its version of Star Wars is intensely destabilizing. She makes it frighteningly clear how easily our steps toward a (probably unworkable) missile defense system will be interpreted by our adversaries and even our allies as giving us a first strike capability. This, in turn, will almost certainly provoke a renewed arms race, with increased risk of mutual annihilation. If you believe that the existence of increasing numbers and types of nuclear weapons, in the hands of an increasing number of nations (of decreasing stability), is the road to peace and prosperity, then you will hate this book. If, on the other hand, you are concerned about the direction the U.S. is moving in, distrust nuclear proliferation, and would like to see your children and grandchildren living in a truly safer and more secure world, then this book is an absolute must. As Caldicott concludes, "We cannot continue to behave as primitive animals . . . conflict resolution and peacekeeping must be our new priorities." Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, Sept. 2002).
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