Toward a Livable World ― Leo Szilard and the Crusade for Nuclear Arms Control

Leo Szilard conceived of the possibility of nuclear fission sustained by a chainreaction years before it was achieved in the laboratory. He was also one of the initiators of theatomic bomb project in the United States. Yet he dedicated his final years to the causes ofunderstanding and sustaining life. The eminent physicist became a biologist and a vital forcecalling, for the control of nuclear and other weapons.This book documents Szilard's energeticattempts to influence public policy on arms control and disarmament issues, both through openpolitical processes and statements and through behindthe-scenes contacts with Washington powersources and a remarkable exercise in personal diplomacy with Nikita Khrushchev.Many of the issuesSzilard deals with in this valuable record of the years 1947-1963 are still crucial today. Hisopposition to antiballistic missile systems, his proposal for a Washington-Moscow "hot line," hiswork on the Pugwash conferences that brought together scientists from the East and the West, hispivotal role in the creation of the Council for a Livable World, his advocacy of a nuclear policy ofno-first-use and restricted retaliation, and his support of "minimum deterrence" in place of anoverwhelming counterforce capability - all these matters are as important in the 1980s as they werein the 1950s and 1960s.Helen S. Hawkins and G. Allen Greb are affiliated with the Institute onGlobal Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego. The late Gertrud Weiss Szilardalso served as coeditor of the first two volumes of her husband's work: The Collected Works of LeoSzilard: Scientific Papers and Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts. Barton J. Bernstein isprofessor in the Department of History, Stanford University.