Shame

Its very rare for any single book to really stand out in terms of many crucially important unvarnished first-hand historical reality checks. Sam Cohens book Shame is one of those few remarkable exceptions. The principle themes and characteristics of Sams book are: 1.Its an inspiring story of dogged triumph over considerable childhood psychological torment and medical adversity. 2.Its a remarkable story of recognizing the right problem to solve versus merely reinventing bigger conventional weapons in new technologies. The neutron bomb aimed at reducing the civilian slaughter that now characterizes large-scale war conventional and otherwise. It makes the morally crucial and counterintuitive case that the neutron bomb is the most moral weapon ever invented and is thus the best type of nuclear bomb ever invented. (Keep in mind the prior actual and continuing dependence on monster stockpiles of inherently indiscriminate civilian-slaughtering and civilian life-support infrastructure destroying city-obliterating bombs.) 3.Its a one-man American Perestroika and Glasnost movement which honestly shows how many high-profile credit-mongering Cold Warriors and Cold War institutions were generally groups of cynical political opportunists who actually (and often knowingly) undermined real national security in their greedy lust for power glory and profit. 4.Its to the foreign policy national security and military-industrial establishments what Feynmans myth-shattering activities were to NASAs phony Challenger investigation (doublespeak for cover-up). Its an amazing chronicle of how a handful of remarkable people can sometimes prevail over enormously larger institutional packs of political animals dominated by self-serving groupthink. It puts on record the sort of real world bureaucratic skullduggery that others will generally only speak about off the record and often only after swearing you to secrecy. 5.It shows why George Washingtons foreign policy advice far from being allegedly obsolete is actually becoming increasingly more important with proliferating advances in smaller and more powerful weapons.