Spying on the Bomb by Jeffrey T. Richelson

Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea, by Jeffrey T. Richelson, reviewed by Tom Birch, Zauel Library (W.W. Norton, 702 pages, $34.95)

In September 1943, Army Chief-of-Staff, George Marshall, directed the head of the Manhattan Project, Leslie Groves, to determine the status of the Nazi German effort to develop an atomic weapon. Ever since, the United States has devoted considerable resources, including human intelligence, aerial reconnaissance, and various technical schemes in order to monitor the worldwide proliferation of nuclear weapons. Other programs of interest have included those in the Soviet Union, Communist China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan, Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea.