title: A Guide to the Nuclear Arms Control Treaties
author:  David B. Thomson 
description: David Thomson's book is the best and most comprehensive source for understanding nuclear arms control--its past, present, and future--that is available today. --Steven A. Maaranen, Los Alamos National Laboratory Former Acting Director for Strategic Nuclear Arms Control, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency<br /><br />I have found David Thomson's book ... to be the best reference on the subject I know for both students and researchers--clear, comprehensive, well organized. --Michael May, Director Emeritus of the Livermore National Laboratory and Research Professor Emeritus, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University<br /><br />This outstanding reference should be on the desk of everyone interested in arms control or nuclear weapons policy. --John C. Hopkins, Former Director of Los Alamos Weapons Program and Former Director of Los Alamos Center for National Security Studies
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  ## **  
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  ## **COMMAND AND CONTROL**
  
  
  
  
  
  #### **NUCLEAR WEAPONS,  **
  
  
  
  
  
  #### **the DAMASCUS  ACCIDENT  ** **and the  **
  
  
  
  
  
  #### **ILLUSION OF SAFETY**
  
  
  
  
  
  ## **  
  **
  
  
  
  
  
  ## **Eric Schlosser**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  For my father
  
  
  
  
  
  Ring the bells that still can ring
  
  
  
  
  
  Forget your perfect offering
  
  
  
  
  
  There is a crack, a crack in everything
  
  
  
  
  
  That’s how the light gets in.
  
  
  
  
  
  Leonard Cohen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **AUTHOR’S NOTE**  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a book about the effort to control nuclear weapons—to ensure that one
  doesn’t go off by accident, by mistake, or by any other unauthorized means.
  The emphasis in these pages isn’t on the high-level diplomacy behind arms
  control treaties. It’s on the operating systems and the mind-set that have
  guided the management of America’s nuclear arsenal for almost seventy years.
  The history of similar efforts in the Soviet Union is largely absent here.
  Although no less important, such a