Deterrence and Persuasion: French Nuclear Armament in the Context of National Policy, 1945-1969 (1970) By Wolf Mendl
 
Wolf Mend combined cosmopolitan sympathies with scholarly objectivity. A German Jewish refugee who joined the Quakers, Wolf was an academic at King's College, London, who played a formative part in developing the ethos, and multidisciplinary approach, of its war studies department. The Quaker response to war, he emphasized, has always been complicated. It was in 1962 that he became a research student at the college, concentrating on French nuclear weapons policy. He rose to become emeritus. As a teacher, Wolf specialized in military sociology, especially civil-military relations. In this penetrating historical study, the author argues that France's nuclear policy has been determined by its foreign relations and economic circumstances as much as by specific military needs. Dr. Mendl analyzes the parts played by scientists, politicians, and defense experts in the armament debate. He examined the debate in the context of the domestic political background of the Fourth and fifth republics and shows how arguments shifted as the nuclear program developed. He dismissed the conventional that French defense policy under De Gaulle was a transient phenomenon, arguing that financially, militarily, and psychologically, the nation has an enormous vested interest in the nuclear program. France acquired nuclear weapons, first and foremost, to improve its standing with its principal partners--the United States, the United Kingdom, and the German Federal Republic--within the Atlantic alliance.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
256 pages
In Good Condition