Discusses the history of nuclear weapons and their proliferation since the discover of fission in 1938, covering the covert spread of technology around the world and post-Cold War geopolitical issues regarding the programs of countries such as Pakistan, China, and North Korea.

Includes index.

Big news: fission releases neutrons! -- Los Alamos: a first, but not the last -- The raids on Japan -- The U.S.S.R. and the United Kingdom: unintended partners -- First attempts at controls -- France and Israel: the apprentices -- China breaks the European cartel -- Nuclear maturity comes to the little three -- Struggling with the barn door -- Changes of state in the Mideast and South Asia -- South Africa -- The Soviet Union -- The once-nuclear Soviet republics -- China's decade of nuclear transparency -- The Fakirs: India, Pakistan, and North Korea -- Fingerprints -- Star and crescent rising -- George's-Antoine Kurtz is alive and well -- Why? -- Appendices : The physics of nuclear weapon design -- Bombing missions over Japan by the 393rd (NUCLEAR) -- U.S. aircraft accidents with nuclear weapons aboard -- Principal soviet nuclear production facilities -- Notes on D.B. Stillman' sten visits tot he Chinese nuclear weapon comples, 1990-2001 -- Chronology.