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Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
A myth-shattering exposé of America's nuclear weapons.
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind. While the harms of global warming increasingly dominate the news, the equally dangerous yet more immediate threat of nuclear weapons has been largely forgotten.
Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, Command and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in rural Arkansas with a historical narrative that spans more than 50 years. It depicts the urgent effort by American scientists, policy makers, and military officers to ensure that nuclear weapons can't be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser also looks at the Cold War from a new perspective, offering history from the ground up, telling the stories of bomber pilots, missile commanders, maintenance crews, and other ordinary servicemen who risked their lives to avert a nuclear holocaust. At the heart of the book lies the struggle, amid the rolling hills and small farms of Damascus, Arkansas, to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States.
Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with people who designed and routinely handled nuclear weapons, Command and Control takes readers into a terrifying but fascinating world that, until now, has been largely hidden from view. Through the details of a single accident, Schlosser illustrates how an unlikely event can become unavoidable, how small risks can have terrible consequences, and how the most brilliant minds in the nation can only provide us with an illusion of control. Audacious, gripping, and unforgettable, Command and Control is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an eye-opening look at the dangers of America's nuclear age.
Critic reviews
A New York Times Notable Book of 2013
"A devastatingly lucid and detailed new history of nuclear weapons in the US...fascinating." (Time magazine)
"Schlosser's book reads like a thriller, but it's masterfully even-handed, well researched, and well organised. Either he's a natural genius at integrating massive amounts of complex information, or he worked like a dog to write this book. You wouldn't think the prospect of nuclear apocalypse would make for a reading treat, but in Schlosser's hands it does." Lev Grossman, Jonathan Franzen, The Guardian)
Featured Article: 12 Thrilling History Listens to Get Ready for
Oppenheimer
Dubbed the "father of the atomic bomb," J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist who gained notoriety for the role he played in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the very first nuclear weapon. After the atomic bomb was developed, it was deployed by the United States to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These listens provide historical context about the man at the center of Christopher Nolan's biopic.
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Schriever rhymes with beaver.
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By: Neil Sheehan
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Skunk Works
- A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
- By: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds.
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Ben Rich's life story...but not in that order
- By Allstar on 11-05-16
By: Ben R. Rich, and others
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The Weapon Wizards
- How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower
- By: Yaakov Katz, Amir Bohbot
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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From drones to satellites, missile defense systems to cyber warfare, Israel is leading the world when it comes to new technology being deployed on the modern battlefield. The Weapon Wizards shows how this tiny nation of 8,000,000 learned to adapt to the changes in warfare and in the defense industry and become the new prototype of a 21st century superpower, not in size, but rather in innovation and efficiency - and as a result of its long war experience.
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Good Overview, May Overstate Level of Innovation
- By JBF on 06-15-17
By: Yaakov Katz, and others
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Who Can Hold the Sea
- The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Christopher Newton, Sharon Hornfischer
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
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This landmark account of the U.S. Navy in the Cold War, Who Can Hold the Sea combines narrative history with scenes of stirring adventure on—and under—the high seas. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the victorious Navy sends its sailors home and decommissions most of its warships. But this peaceful interlude is short-lived, as Stalin, America’s former ally, makes aggressive moves in Europe and the Far East.
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James D. Hornfisher's last work
- By JWHayn4563 on 05-05-22
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Red Moon Rising
- Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age
- By: Matthew Brzezinski
- Narrated by: Charles Stransky
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 4, 1957, a time of Cold War paranoia, the Soviet Union secretly launched the Earth's first artificial moon. No bigger than a basketball, the tiny satellite was powered by a car battery. Yet, for all its simplicity, Sputnik stunned the world.
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awesome
- By Thomas on 06-25-09
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Bloody Sixteen
- The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 During the Vietnam War
- By: Peter Fey
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Strategy and reality collide in Peter Fey's gripping history of aircraft carrier USS Oriskany's three deployments to Vietnam with Carrier Air Wing 16 (CVW-16). Its tours coincided with the most dangerous phases of Operation Rolling Thunder, the ill-fated bombing campaign against North Vietnam, and accounted for a quarter of all the naval aircraft lost during Rolling Thunder. The Johnson administration's policy of gradually applied force meant that Oriskany arrived on station just as previous restrictions were lifted and bombing raids increased.
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Great Listen!
- By MeathookWX on 09-21-18
By: Peter Fey
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The Dead Hand
- The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
- By: David E. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
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The Dead Hand is the suspense-filled story of the people who sought to brake the speeding locomotive of the arms race, then rushed to secure the nuclear and biological weapons left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union—a dangerous legacy that haunts us even today.The Cold War was an epoch of massive overkill.
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Eye opening
- By Brian on 11-16-10
By: David E. Hoffman
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The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
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Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
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Scientia Est Potentia/Knowledge is Power
- By Cynthia on 10-08-15
By: Annie Jacobsen
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Eyes on Target
- Inside Stories from the Brotherhood of the U.S. Navy SEALs
- By: Scott McEwen, Richard Miniter
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
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Told through the eyes of current and former Navy SEALs, Eyes on Target is an inside account of some of the most harrowing missions in American history-including the mission to kill Osama bin Laden and the mission that wasn't, the deadly attack on the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi where a retired SEAL sniper with a small team held off one hundred terrorists while his repeated radio calls for help went unheeded.
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Just an attempt to cash in
- By John on 09-24-16
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SEAL Target Geronimo
- The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden
- By: Chuck Pfarrer
- Narrated by: Erik Bergmann
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On May 2, 2011, at 1:03 a.m. a satellite uplink was sent from Pakistan crackling into the situation room of the White House: "Geronimo, Echo, KIA." These words, spoken by a Navy SEAL, ended Osama bin Laden's reign of terror. SEAL Target Geronimo is the story of Neptune's Spear from the men who were there. After talking to members of the SEAL team involved in the raid, Pfarrer shares never-before-revealed details in an exclusive account of what happened as he takes listeners inside the walls of Bin Laden's compound.
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Marcinko’s Legacy….his pain, their gain.
- By James on 11-10-11
By: Chuck Pfarrer
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Tanker Pilot
- Lessons from the Cockpit
- By: Mark Hasara, Rush Limbaugh - foreword
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
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Get a glimpse of life in the pilot's seat and experience modern air warfare directly from a true American hero. Lt. Col Mark Hasara - who has 24 years of experience in flying missions around the world - provides keen and eye-opening insights on success and failure and emphasizes the importance of always being willing to learn. He provides 12 essential lessons based on his wartime experience and his own personal photographs from his missions during the Cold War, Gulf War, and Iraq War.
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NKAWTG! Nobody!
- By David Stefano on 11-10-17
By: Mark Hasara, and others
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The Final Mission of Extortion 17
- Special Ops, Helicopter Support, SEAL Team Six, and the Deadliest Day of the US War in Afghanistan
- By: Ed Darack
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
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The downing of Extortion 17 spurred a number of conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the shootdown was revenge for bin Laden's death. In The Final Mission of Extortion 17, Ed Darack debunks this theory and others and uncovers the truth behind this mysterious tragedy. His account of the brave pilots, crew, and passengers of Extortion 17 and the events of that fateful day is interwoven into a rich, complex narrative that also discusses modern joint combat operations and the history of the Afghan war to that date.
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What the "Lone Survivor" wasn't.
- By Douglas on 09-29-17
By: Ed Darack
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American Soldier
- By: General Tommy R. Franks, Malcolm McConnell
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
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The Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command from July 2000 through July 2003, General Tommy Franks made history leading American and Coalition forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq, the decisive battles that launched the war on terrorism.
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even more proud of our military
- By Brian on 08-12-04
By: General Tommy R. Franks, and others
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This audiobook needs an editor
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On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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Good Overview of the original development
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The story of the NR-1 is told against the tense background of the Cold War and peopled with such rich characters as the acerbic Admiral Hyman Rickover, ocean scientist Robert Ballard (who found the Titanic), the designers and builders who faced almost impossible tasks to give life to the ship, the unique officers and sailors who took the little boat down into depths on covert missions, and the families who waited for them on shore, unaware that there would be no escape if the boat ran into trouble.
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One of the best books on the subject. Simply put.
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What listeners say about Command and Control
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A reader
- 02-16-14
A miracle that we escaped the Cold War alive....
Command and Control was excellent, if occasionally chilling, listening. The book takes the form of a thriller - flashing back between an accident at a missile silo in Arkansas in 1980, and the history of the control of American nuclear weapons. The thriller becomes a bit of a horror show as Schlosser shows how often disaster was narrowly averted, and the potential consequences of a catastrophic accident. There are many mind-boggling facts along the way: the Davy Crockett nuclear anti-tank rocket had a blast radius as large as its range, the military occasionally classified things so highly the president couldn't see them, and there were many occasions where a nuclear war nearly happened.
The evolution of the Damascus Accident is especially well-written, as is the story of the evolution of nuclear strategy and command. As one reviewer in the LA Times pointed out, Schlosser is decidedly liberal, but the heroes of the book (such as they are) are McNamara and Reagan, who actually tame the nuclear beast, at least for a while. Similarly, there are great explanations of the development of the atomic bomb, and the technical details involved.
There are only a few weaknesses. First, the emphasis on bomb safety and the final parts of the Damascus Accident drag a bit, making the last third of the book somewhat less pointed and novel than the terrific first part. Second, the book seems to lose steam after Reagan, barely giving any time to the post-Cold War situation, or to other countries. While this isn't necessarily bad, it means that we spend most of the book in increasingly high levels of concern, and are left without either a lot of discussion over how to reach a safer world, or a clear sense of what the nuclear system looks like today.
In any case, this is a great read for fans of nonfiction and history, as it covers a huge amount of ground. And the final sentence is absolutely chilling and revelatory.
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- Jeff
- 03-11-14
SUPERB ON SO MANY LEVELS
This is a great read but it will scare the shyt out of you. Nuclear weapons + human error = utter catastrophe. I dont know about you but I always assumed things as dangerous as nuclear weapons were handled with enormous over cautious care. To learn that the people in charge of policy and those that actually handle them are no better than those in your life that you dread lending your car to is a crap your pants revelation.
This is a very well written book that you will prefer to remember as fiction but is of course non fiction. Scott Brick is an utterly perfect match as narrator making this medicine taste great. The revelatory nature of these facts should put this book front and center of our news media and zeitgeist, but thats not going to happen because were all kept amused with bread and circus and no news media will touch it. If your nerves are already at their limit with the state of things and your plate is overflowing, you may want to pass on the revelations contained here. If you can take it- its a drop jaw fascinating listen
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- S. Mersereau
- 10-14-13
Stunning
What did you love best about Command and Control?
The story brings together the history, science and military facets of nuclear weapons, by building on an actual Titan ICBM accident.
What did you like best about this story?
Having served in the Strategic Air Command and kept B-52s aloft with live nukes, the stories were a revelation - so many accidents and near catastrophes - that one can only conclude we were saved from ourselves.
Any additional comments?
It is hard to appreciate the overwhelming threat that nuclear weapons posed in the 60s and 70s, and the relief at the end of the cold war.
But then, the weapons haven't gone away...
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13 people found this helpful
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- Ellen
- 02-04-14
HOLY F*CK! HOW HAVE WE SURVIVED THIS LONG?
What made the experience of listening to Command and Control the most enjoyable?
It was jaw dropping and terrifying. Stephen King should quit and start writing for Sesame Street because this truth is so much more frightening than any fiction. I often listen to books when I go to bed, and dear god, the dreams I had when I fell asleep when this book was running! But it is also encouraging, in that somebody must have our backs, because it is a flipping miracle when haven't been blow to kingdom come a dozen times over.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Characters? This was nonfiction. I wish it was fiction.
Rescue workers who head back to save people even when doing so is likely to kill them. All those guys! How can you not be moved? In the big karmic book, it offsets those douchebag politicians who are too cheap/stupid to budget safety measures and the military narcissists who think atomic weapons are a good idea. But karma doesn't necessarily save our ridiculous ape species from extincting ourselves.
What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?
He was clear, had good pacing, and almost matter of fact.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The rescue workers. See above "favorite characters.
Any additional comments?
Read this or listen to it. While we are all sweating it, what with the economic collapse and all the gun violence and the poisoned water and compromised food supply and fracking and what all, you owe it to yourself to learn about the ways we seem to be determined to hasten our own extermination.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Allen
- 11-14-13
Holy Crap!!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Great story, great narration. The subject of atomic energy/weaponry does require some pretty indepth explanation so at times it can be boresome while leading up to the meat of the matter.
How we haven't managed to blow ourselves to Kingdom Come is a nuclear accident in itself. Drops, planecrashes, fires, it's not like we haven't tried or actually dared a multiple megaton warhead to detonate in our own backyard.
Scary stuff, I couldn't put it down.
Read this book if you're even remotely intrigued by atomic weaponry, their handling and management throughout the course of the cold war.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Randall Key
- 03-10-14
Bombs Away!
This book is not a bomb! It is a book that I could not put down. I was a Nuclear weapons specialist in SAC at Ellsworth and believe everything written to be true. I was actually involved and knew of some "incidents" that went unreported as well. In fact, my 28MMS Commander was called to come out at 3am after we had an electrical fire on the tug pulling 4 nukes after an alert. We put the fire out and no harm done....fire department only blocks away were too afraid to come to the site and help....for 45 minutes. But the Colonel never said good job or thanks for saving the base.....he said "You two need a haircut....and keep this under your hat"! That kind of arrogance and non appreciation for what we had just done caused me to throw up my hands, turn myself in for drugs.....and get out of the USAF. Had drug testing been done, I'm sure 90% of my squadron would still be in jail.....the cops, too! In training another team dropped a bomb a few inches to its stand. We also had a tritium leak and an armed bomb on the flight line. The American people don't know the half. This book tells the best.
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- Michael J Canning
- 07-22-14
Very interesting. Somewhat hard to follow.
Would you listen to Command and Control again? Why?
Command and Control tells two stories concurrently, alternating back and forth, from one to the other. The first story is the story of the Damascus incident, in which a Titan nuclear missile came close to exploding in Arkansas due to a series of oversights which, as the author documents, are not nearly as rare as the public might suppose. The second story is the history of nuclear weapons themselves - their use, development, design, and testing, as well as their technical limitations (or lack thereof) and the strategic calculations that drove their development and deployment during the Cold War.
The first narrative, which recounts the Damascus incident, is illuminating and entertaining, but at times it also feels overly drawn-out and confusing. This is largely due to the way its telling is broken up over the course of the book. This structure might work better in print, but I found it challenging in audio format. The second narrative - where the author traces the history of nuclear weapons broadly, from the Manhattan Project to the present, is where the book really excels. It is first-rate. I would listen this portion of the again, for sure, and recommend it to others interested in the subject without any reservation.
On the whole, a very good book.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Command and Control?
The discussion of thermonuclear weapons, as opposed to pure fission bombs, and how the former fundamentally altered the strategic calculus about the use of nuclear weapon in war. In the modern era, we do not really distinguish between the awesome but comprehensible power of fission bombs, and the truly cataclysmic and unthinkable force of thermonuclear weapons, but the distinction was actually a major turning point in the way these weapons were viewed by political and military leaders. A second highlight was the author's excellent history of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, and its rivalry with the other military services and the (civilian) U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for primacy in the control U.S. nuclear weapons capabilities.
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- Victor
- 02-03-14
Excellent book on Cold War history
Would you consider the audio edition of Command and Control to be better than the print version?
This book is an excellent telling of the story of the Damascus accident intermixed with a very accurate telling of almost all of the key moments in Cold War history. There are also shocking revelation about how lax nuclear security, safety and command and control were in the US in the early days of the Cold War.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The telling of the Greensboro incident.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes. Extremely well written in a manner that really holds your attention.
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- Marcus Vorwaller
- 04-15-14
Wow. I had no idea.
This was the first thing I’ve read that goes into any detail on the situation of the nuclear situation in the US and the world. Wow. I wasn’t convinced I wanted to know so much about missiles and warheads and what it takes to keep them secret and secure, but after I started realizing the scope of what could have gone wrong during the heights of the Cold War the information quickly went from being academic to something much more real.
The number of accidents involving nuclear warheads is surprisingly high. The internal politics revolving around how these weapons should be used are maddening. The scope of the destruction that would have ensued had the Cold War master plan ever been carried out is literally insane. The fact that so many nations to this day have the power to cause that type of destruction makes the relatively stable state of the world seem tenuous to say the least.
Command and Conquer starts off slow, but quickly becomes an engrossing freakshow of the insanity of the Cold War and the truly awful power of the superpowers
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- Tim
- 01-04-14
Rookie Mistakes on Nukes
I like to ask my friends on what they are reading to be current with the times. There are so many good and bad titles out there that it's always a hit or a miss. A few of my friends suggested that I should pickup "Command and Control." I haven't read anything from Eric Schlosser since Fast Food Nation and I haven't read any documentary or informational books in a while.
So, this book was easy to purchase because I enjoy this kind of genre. I always learn something new and don't feel that I'm wasting time on some made up story.
All I have to say is, if the United States couldn't handle their nuclear weapons, I wonder how other countries are failing to handle their's and how many accidents that they are having. It just seems like the United States just decided to build bombs and without any safety procedures.
Even to this day, there are ongoing studies on how safe we are from manufacturing bombs. There are too many rookie mistakes. There is no backup plan like in the movies to disarm a nuke once fire. Damascus was just one accident that we know of and there are many more that we have yet to reveal.
Maybe building life threatening bombs are just too complicated for all man kind.
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