Summary

Lieutenant General Glenn A. Kent was a uniquely acute analyst and developer
of American defense policy in the second half of the twentieth century. His
33-year career in the Air Force was followed by more than 20 years as one of
the leading analysts at RAND. This volume is not a memoir in the normal
sense but rather a summary of the dozens of national security issues in
which Glenn was personally engaged over the course of his career. These
issues included creating the single integrated operational plan (SIOP),
leading DoD's official assessment of strategic defenses in the 1960s,
developing and analyzing strategic nuclear arms control agreements, helping
to bring new weapon systems to life, and many others. Each vignette
describes the analytical frameworks and, where appropriate, the mathematical
formulas and charts that Glenn developed and applied to gain insights into
the issue at hand. The author also relates his roles in much of the
bureaucratic pulling and hauling that occurred as issues were addressed
within the government.