Red Alert
by Peter George, Peter Bryant
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Book Summary Information
Author: Peter Bryant, Peter GeorgeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-01
ISBN: 1596542616
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: blackmask.com
Book Reviews of Red Alert
Book Review: A Study of Fear and Paranoia
Summary: 4 Stars
Before you start to read this book it might be a good idea (especially if you are under thirty years old) to do a little reading about 1958 in an almanac or encyclopedia supplement for that year. For those of us who as elementary school students, were taught to turn our desks to the window and cower behind it, or hide in the halls; this could have been a true story. There were more than one or two scares in those days that could have led to a "Nuclear Exchange".
Of little note today is that SAC (the Strategic Air Command) had air fleets of B-52s armed and in the air from the 1950s until the early 1990s. During that time there were many 'incidents' that could have triggered a 'bombing' should there not have been numerous "failsafes" that kept this from happening. One of the major protections was the 'red phone' lines directly between the US President and the General Secretary of the USSR.
While Kubrick decided to turn this into a satire, most of what happens in the book does happen in the movie, without the comedy. What prevented this disaster from actually happening was that 'Plan R' was NEVER a scenario that was approved for use by the Joint Chiefs. One of the reasons that no one person (except for the President) could order a strike was to prevent some one going off the deep end and ordering a nuclear strike. In most cases it took two or more people to arm a missile and fire it. The 'Minuteman' sites were set-up so that one person couldn't turn both keys at once and the two men in the silo were armed so as to able to shoot each other should it become necessary to stop any attempted launch.
This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the tension that existed between the two superpowers in the fifties and sixties and how lucky we were that nothing happened. The idea of "MAD", mutually assured destruction, was enough to keep even the most fanatical nationalist from starting something that no one could win.
Zeb Kantrowitz
Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
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