In his book, “Death Rays and Delusions,” Dr. Gerold Yonas explains how he found himself thrust into a high stakes world of generals and politicians, international intrigue, multibillion dollar budgets, laser beams and nuclear annihilation as he faced a mind-boggling assignment–creating a high-tech shield in space to defend America from attack.
In this autobiographical narrative about the end of the Cold War, Yonas gives a firsthand account of the creation and evolution of the Star Wars beam weapon program. Having served as the first chief scientist and acting deputy director for Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as the “Star Wars” program, Yonas traces the strange, ironic and humorous events of his career as “Reagan’s Ray Gun.” He offers insight into the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the political, military and scientific machinations taking place in the background.
Exploring a time characterized by chaos and confusion, politics and public relations, delusions and deceptions, Yonas reflects on the modern lessons from this era and shares his unique perspective on what happens when science and politics collide.
SDI Guy 
Congratulations on this review Gerry and the one in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal.
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Len Deighton, John LeCarre, Tom Clancy: All wish they had such a review.
Hey, here’s an idea for you: The Sat/Sunday edition of the Wall Street Journal always contains a half-page (1500 wds?) by the author of an interesting new book, discussing 5 books or experiences that author found inspiring or especially useful for writing the book. Sort of, the author’s recommendations for learning more about the topic. I’m sure that the result of appearing in the Journal is to significantly boost the author’s book.
So, in your case, you could do a list, I dunno, like this: basic physics (The Feynman Lectures?). Chinese strategy (Gordon Chang?), Chinese penetration of Latin America (Evan Ellis?); gangs and security (Max Manwaring?).
Why not query the Journal? Maybe you could ask the opinion of your publisher? Agent?
best, tb
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