Scarlett

September 28, 1992
Ripley's ultra-mega-hyped sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind spent 28 weeks on PW 's bestseller list while receiving uniformly dismal notices from the critics.

August 1, 1990
In this book based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles for the Philadelphia Inquirer, journalist Weiner probes the way the Pentagon has used secret budgets to fund huge military programs. This has grown to the point that there are now more than 100 multimillion- and multibillion-dollar weapons systems, many of them nuclear weapons designed to fight and win World Wars III and IV, built without the awareness of the public or even the Congress. Weiner takes a close look at programs such as the Stealth bomber and provides fascinating detail from Congressional testimony. The thesis of the book--that secrecy in government military programs is antithetical to democracy--is well documented and hugely important. As the Cold War draws to a close and military budgets come under attack, the public and Congress may tend to forget the defense establishment's inclination toward secrecy and self-perpetuation. Weiner's book serves as a timely reminder that this would be unwise. Highly recommended.-- Jennifer Scarlott, World Policy Inst., New York

Copyright 1990 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 2, 1991
This expanded follow-up to Weiner's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1988 Philadelphia Inquirer series exposing the Pentagon's secret treasury offers a comprehensive look at the origin and growth of this budget and the weapons and wars it has financed. Among the programs examined are the Stealth bomber (an "impossibly expensive mistake") and a satellite system called MILSTAR which is central to the plan to "win" a nuclear war that will already have been lost in the event of its activation. Weiner brings to light black-budgeted activities of a cadre of colonels, retired generals and CIA agents, a virtual hidden army within the U.S. Army that "came close to hijacking a fair amount of power" during the Reagan years. This hard-hitting expose of power out of control, immune from accountability, is well documented. It reveals how the executive office, the Pentagon and the CIA have squandered billions of dollars on useless weapons and renegade foreign policies. First serial to Rolling Stone; BOMC alternate.