Title: Rolling the Dice With Nuclear Weapons
Author: John Ward
Publisher: Our Planet Project Foundation Press
ISBN: 978-0-578-53936-2
Pages: 348
Genre: Non-Fiction
Reviewed by: Dan MacIntosh
Hollywood Book Reviews
John Ward’s book, Rolling the Dice With Nuclear Weapons, has a clearly stated purpose, which is the tall order for complete elimination of all nuclear weapons. Ward is the director of Our Planet Project Foundation, an organization with the stated purpose of forcing “politicians to give up nuclear weapons whether they want to or not.” While the organization has an undeniable goal, Ward’s book expands on the organization’s mission statement by providing supporting evidence for its primary aim. This detailed work leaves no stone unturned, as Ward makes his fully researched case for global disarmament.
Even if you disagree with Ward’s plans for a safer world (and why anyone would oppose a planet without nuclear weaponry, just doesn’t make any sense), this extensively documented work provides an informative overview of these destructive forces, as well as a clear picture of the contemporary major players in this dangerous game. Ward breaks his book into three parts, which include Journey of Death I, Journey of Death II and finally Journey of Life. Its first two sections are filled with a lot of the bad news, while the final segment points to a more positive way forward – one without nuclear weapons. These primary sections are followed by a few helpful pages of abbreviations and acronyms, an extensive glossary, and a selected bibliography.
All this information is presented in an easy-to-understand writing style. It may have been tempting for the educated Ward to pack his book with military jargon. However, while such a tactic might have impressed military personnel and veterans, it may have gone over the heads of regular folks. These regular folks are the ones Ward is hoping to persuade. Toward the end of the book, Ward details recent polls taken in pivotal nations, highlighting how most citizens are in favor of eliminating nuclear weapons. Our Planet Project Foundation even calls itself a critical mass of ordinary people. Ward is convinced if regular citizens pressure their governments to do away with nuclear weapons, world leaders will respond by giving their people what they want.
One area where Ward is particularly effective is in explaining complicated information. If you’ve ever heard IT professionals talking among themselves and their work, you know how much these unique experts seem to have a language all their own. Just as most of us have had our Internet data compromised in some manner – such as having to replace a credit card which some crook has hacked into and used without our permission – Ward raises a big red flag about how vulnerable computer programs which control our nuclear weapon deployments are at risk. If hackers can sneak into nearly every Internet program, who is to say these evildoers can’t also find a way to compromise nuclear weapon deployment programs?
Ward’s book is called Rolling the Dice with Nuclear Weapons because odds are against these destructive devices never being used again. To prove his point, Ward details many of the close calls throughout history. Maybe we just got lucky when mistakes didn’t escalate into a full-blown nuclear Holocaust. However, every gambler knows that good luck doesn’t last forever. If our luck runs out – and Ward predicts it eventually will – the result will be catastrophic.
Ward’s work is important because nuclear disarmament has somewhat disappeared from our national conversation. It’s far more common to hear discussion of pandemics and climate change, than it is to find serious talk about ridding the world of nuclear weapons. However, as John Ward’s informative writing makes crystal clear, just because people aren’t talking a lot about the dangers of nuclear war, it doesn’t mean this threat has somehow gone away. After reading this book, you too may no longer wish to keep on rolling the dice.