The Sword and the Shield: Britain, America, NATO and Nuclear Weapons, 1970-1976 by Kristan Stoddart

The Sword and the Shield reveals for the first time declassified discussions that took place between the British, French and US governments for nuclear cooperation in the early to mid-1970s. In doing so, it sets the scene for the top secret upgrade to Britain's Polaris force, codenamed Chevaline, and how this could have brought down Harold Wilson's Labour government of 1974-1976. It also analyses the evolution of NATO strategy in this period into something that was capable of a flexible response to Warsaw Pact aggression – a response that, if enacted, could well have been apocalyptic.