In June 1977 an obscure reference to "ERW" in the classified budget of the U.S. Energy Research & Development Administration happened to arouse the curiosity of Congressional & media investigators. "ERW", it turned out, referred to "enhanced radiation warhead", which upon further probing referred to a new type of nuclear warhead that emitted bursts of neutrons, not explosives. Such a "Neutron Bomb" could kill everything living in its vicinity while leaving structures undamaged and the landscape uncontaminated.
So secret had been the N-Bomb's development that even President Jimmy Carter first learned of it from an exposé article in the Washington Post.
What followed were over two years of impassioned discussion within the U.S. government, the NATO alliance, and the Soviet Union about the ethics and practicality of such a device. Was it the "wonder weapon" that would stop any Warsaw Pact invasion in its tracks without the destruction of old, convention nuclear arsenal? Or would its deployment make nuclear war more "thinkable" by erasing the previously-unthinkable nuclear threshold?
The Neutron Bomb details this entire sequence of events, both domestic and international, and examines how and why the world community resolved the problem as it did.
Originally the author's Ph.D. dissertation in Political Science at the University of California, The Neutron Bomb assumed spy-thriller dimensions: Everyone everywhere was caught by surprise; no one knew what it was safe to say/not say about such a secretive program, and government pronouncements were undercut by gossip within Washington's Embassy Row. What had begun as an ordinary research project became so explosive that the author found himself in a quandary as to what it was both safe and legal to write! Here, 35 years later, the entire story can be told.
About the Author: Non-fictional books by Dr. Aquino generally fall into three categories: historical, practical, and initiatory.
Historical works include The Neutron Bomb (a study of the domestic and foreign politics surrounding the proposed NATO introduction of that weapon in 1977-8) and Extreme Prejudice (a documentary exposé of the 1986-7 "Satanic ritual abuse" scam at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Two other [2-volume] books - The Church of Satan and The Temple of Set - are not only histories but initiatory analyses as well, examining the philosophical and metaphysical concepts which define and energize those religious institutions.
As one of the U.S. Army's extremely rare Political-Military Affairs Officers [with credentials in Strategic & Space Intelligence, Psychological Operations, Special Forces, Civil Affairs, Defense Attaché, and Foreign Area Officer], Dr. Aquino has also introduced the practical application of "MindWar" as a methodology for reducing, if not eliminating contemporary humanity's obsession with and reliance upon murderous, destructive conventional war (PhysWar"). His 2013 book MindWar introduces this solution and outlines its successive stages of implementation.
Finally a purely-initiatory work, MindStar, addresses the purely-metaphysical "soul" of human thought which MindWar [as a practical curriculum] omits, confronting the elusive questions of human divinity and immortality.
Unsurprisingly Dr. Aquino's fictional ventures - We Break the Sword, FireForce, and Morlindalë ("authored" by The One Ring) - all draw upon extensive political and philosophical principles in their telling. Both FireForce and Morlindalë utilize the literary technique of parody in a serious, rather than humorous exploration and extrapolation of the original source.
Additionally Dr. Aquino has recovered and Edited a collection of childhood poems by his mother, Betty Ford: Pegasus in Pinfeathers.
All of these books are available on Amazon in both printed paperback and Kindle ebook editions.