The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

by Fred Kaplan

In June 2018, shortly before his first summit with Kim Jong-un, Trump met in the White House with Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister. Abe proposed that he and Trump get their respective national security teams to work out a joint negotiating strategy. H. R. McMaster, who’d heard the suggestion ahead of time, was enthusiastic about the idea, as was much of his staff: the two teams had similar views; the two countries had common interests. But Trump waved away the idea. There are two things you need to know, he told Abe. First, he said, “I am the greatest negotiator in the history of the White House.” Second, when he was about to make a big deal, he went on, he didn’t prepare with a lot of documents; he went into the room and let his gut take a reading of the guy across the table. For Abe, this was a turning point; he suddenly realized that, as long as Trump remained president, Japan could no longer count on the United States as a reliable ally.