Professor James Cameron, from FGV’s Center for International Relations, based at FGV’s School of Social Sciences (CPDOC), recently launched the book titled ‘The Double Game: The Demise of America’s First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation’. The work analyzes the transition process of nuclear superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union, in the early 1960s, to nuclear parity, under the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, in 1972.

The book breaks new ground in sourcing the personal conversations between Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon and their close advisors. This allowed the professor to investigate exactly to what extent the speeches intended for the public and the Congress matched the personal convictions of those Presidents.

In the book published by Oxford University Press, Cameron discusses how the individual beliefs of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, hidden behind a facade of strategic language, were quite different from the ways each one dealt with the complex issues of the nuclear age.

Arguing that the U.S. Congress and public were much more important factors in making nuclear decisions than is generally recognized, the book provides a new interpretation of this period and sets new terms for the current debates on nuclear superiority, deterrence, and the future of the country’s strategy.

Go to the website for more information on the book.