The world-renowned antinuclear activist's argument for a
response to terrorism based on the country's best interests rather
than weapons manufacturers' bottom line. On September 18, one week after the World Trade
disaster, Lockheed Martin, the country's leading manufacturer of conventional weaponry, nuclear
delivery systems, and national missile defense, took a full page ad in the New York Times echoing
JFK's famous call to "pay any price....to assure the survival and the success of liberty." The ad
offered an unusually public display of what is typically the invisible hand and muscle of the arms
industry guiding American sentiment and government. In her uncannily timely new book, Dr. Helen
Caldicott looks at the indebtedness of the Bush Administration to the arms industry and warns of
the incredible dangers inherent in allowing weapons manufacturers to dictate foreign policy.
Recounting the history of government collusion with industry, Caldicott shows how the merging of
weapons firms in the 1980s created hugely powerful "death merchants," including Lockheed and
others, ready to lobby politicians and manipulate public opinion on behalf of their corporate
interests. Now, with unprecedented acts of terrorism fueling the American public's willingness to
grant its government broad power to wage war, the constant pressure from weapons makers to use
military force—and by extension, buy more of their weapons—poses the very real threat of nuclear
war. Enumerating, as a physician, the medical consequences of such a war, Caldicott demonstrates
conclusively that the notion of nuclear survival is a complete fantasy, and that nuclear victory is an
oxymoron. In the same way that a generation embraced Caldicott's hugely influential Nuclear
Madness and Missile Envy, The New Nuclear Danger stands to educate, alert, and mobilize
millions of young people and concerned citizens, who must understand the planetary threat posed
by overly-aggressive nuclear scientific establishments and weapons industries in a volatile world.
About the Author
The world's leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement, Dr. Helen Caldicott is the
founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Both the
Smithsonian Institute and Ladies' Home Journal named her one of the Most Influential Women of
the Twentieth Century, and she has honorary degrees from nineteen universities. She divides her
time between Australia, where she is standing for Senate, and the United States, where she has
devoted the last two years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical
hazards of the nuclear age.
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