The Cold World They Made:
The Strategic Legacy of Roberta and Albert Wohlstetter

by ron robin
harvard, 365 pages, $35

Today all but forgotten, Roberta and Albert Wohlstetter were once the First Couple of Armageddon. During the Cold War, with World War III seemingly just around the corner, they played a leading role in pioneering the largely fraudulent enterprise known as nuclear strategy. In their heyday, the Wohlstetters were the twin stars around which the universe of defense intellectuals revolved.

Given the influence they once wielded, their personal eccentricities, and the devoted disciples that Albert in particular attracted, the Wohlstetters will one day make fascinating subjects for a full-length dual biography. This is not that book. Instead, Ron Robin, president of the University of Haifa, offers a serviceable but preliminary rumination on his subjects and their legacy. The Cold World They Made conducts readers on a brief reconnaissance into a place called Cold War America, covering once-familiar terrain that with the passing of time appears alien and awaits rediscovery.

As to who the Wohlstetters themselves were and how their lives unfolded, Robin offers only a bare outline. Instead, he focuses on what made them tick: the “unchecked vanities” of people certain of their own superiority along with an aptitude for opportunism. Among members of the American intelligentsia, of course, these are not uncommon traits. In the particular case of Roberta and Albert, opportunism combined with fearmongering became a formula for lifelong success.

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