Disarming strangers : nuclear diplomacy with North Korea / Leon V. Sigal.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-305) and index.

1. Uncooperative America -- Pt. I. Coercion Fails. 2. The Bush Deadlock Machine. 3. The Clinton Administration Ties Itself in Knots -- 4. A "Better than Even" Chance of Misestimation. 5. Deadlock -- Pt. II. Cooperation Succeeds. 6. Open Covenants, Privately Arrived At. 7. Getting to Yes -- Pt. III. Conclusions. 8. Nuclear Diplomacy in the News - An Untold Story. 9. The Politics of Discouragement. 10. Why Won't America Cooperate? App. I. North Korea's Tit-for-Tat Negotiating Behavior.

In June 1994 the United States went to the brink of war with North Korea. With economic sanctions impending, President Bill Clinton approved the dispatch of substantial reinforcements to South Korea, and plans were prepared for attacking the North's nuclear weapons complex. The turning point came in an extraordinary private diplomatic initiative by former President Jimmy Carter and others to reverse the dangerous American course and open the way to a diplomatic settlement of the nuclear crisis.

Few Americans know the full details behind this story or perhaps realize the devastating impact it could have had on the nation's post-Cold War foreign policy. In this lively and authoritative book, Leon Sigal offers an inside look at how the Korean nuclear crisis originated, escalated, and was ultimately diffused.