“Nuclear War begins with a blip on a radar screen”. With this, Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen goes through what would likely happen were a nuclear attack on the United States to begin. After taking the reader through just what would happen were a 1 megaton warhead detonate in a large city (it’s...not good), and how Cold War superpowers calmly and almost unemotionally planned for a war that would kill hundreds of millions of people, the author breaks the narrative into before, during, and after the nuclear attack.
Interviewing many people with intimate knowledge of nuclear planning and nuclear weapons, and right up to the limits of what would get her and her subjects thrown in a Super-Max prison, Jacobsen goes through step by step what would likely occur if North Korea was to fire a intercontinental ballistic missile at the United States, how the United States would know what was coming and respond, and how any response quickly escalates into a full-scale nuclear war — with no way to stop it. Through systems developed during the Cold War, and with new technology developed since, the United States would know almost immediately of the threat. And yet as Jacobsen shows, their fate would already be sealed.
The most striking element is time — just how quickly this would all happen, and how little time that decision makers and entire organisational systems would have to decide how to respond, whether to retaliate and how much they should retaliate. Turns out it's literally minutes for people to process that something is happening, process what decisions they can make, and then decide when they know will likely end the world as they know it.
“Nuclear weapons reduce human brilliance and ingenuity, love and desire, empathy and intellect, to ash.”
Annie Jacobsen has a wonderful way with words throughout the book, using clear and concise explanation of nuclear weapons, delivery systems, planning, and the effects of their use all the more chilling, with also some lovely quotes and turns of phrase (ballistic missile submarines as “handmaidens of the apocalypse”).
Throughout the book, she also gives great informative asides about different elements of nuclear weapons and history — a great way to add details without taking away from the overall narrative.
At no point does she need to exaggerate — the simple reality of weapons and what would likely happen if nuclear deterrence failed is horrible enough. Even in a world where there are far fewer nuclear weapons deployed and ready to be used than during the 1980s, there are certainly enough.
Above all, Annie Jacobsen shows the absurdity of it all, how so many swords of Damocles sit above all of our heads, and how easily “Und dass sowas von sowas kommt” - how if it ever began, it would be the end of the world as we know it, and probably nothing or no one could stop it once it began. A scenario like the outbreak of the First World War on steroids.
Nuclear War A Scenario is terrifying, and a book worth reading around the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 September 2017.
“It was the nuclear weapons that were the enemy of us all.”
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