This is an extremely readable book about very involved political goings-on among our nuclear scientists and the politicos who controlled their programs. It is not about how nuclear bombs are designed or how they work. Primarily, it once more illustrates how U.S. commie-phobia affected everyone during the Cold War. I suppose Edward Teller comes off as a bit of a villain for his single-minded promotion of hydrogen bombs, which were viewed by many of his contemporaries, and by even more folks today, as a weapon whose widespread and long-lived destructive effects, or "collateral" damage, would be unacceptable.