Command and Control
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15
Ratings1
Average rating4
The Oscar-shortlisted documentary Command and Control, directed by Robert Kenner, finds its origins in Eric Schlosser's book and continues to explore the little-known history of the management and safety concerns of America's nuclear aresenal. “A devastatingly lucid and detailed new history of nuclear weapons in the U.S. Fascinating.” —Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine “Perilous and gripping . . . Schlosser skillfully weaves together an engrossing account of both the science and the politics of nuclear weapons safety.” —San Francisco Chronicle 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 fifty 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.
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It is impossible to leave this book without a strange feeling of awe that, as Schlosser writes in his concusion, “none of the roughly seventy thousand [!] nuclear weapons built by the United States since 1945 has ever detonated inadvertently or without proper authorization.” Over the roughly 480 pages of raw text, there are too many accidents, including many explosions and fires, to recount. Still, if by intricate safety design or sheer luck, an actual detonation has so far always been avoided. So is it reassuring to know that things have always turned out benign as yet, or is it actually frightening to know just how close we came so many times?
The grander narrative of how US nuclear armament and policy developed from 1945 to the end of the Cold War is interspersed with a granular depiction of the 1980 explosion of a Titan II rocket carrying a W53 warhead, the most destructive ever used by the US. While these chapters provide a welcome break from the birds-eye view of the grand narrative, they can be somewhat frustrating too. At least I found it sometimes hard to remember exactly who did what and where whenever we were dropped back in Damascus after having spent the last couple dozen pages with, say, the Eisenhower Administration.
Speaking of which, I was left somewhat confused by this president in particular. There are various times in which Schlosser will recount Eisenhower's distaste for nuclear weapons and how false or overstated intelligence coupled with corporate pressures lead him to his famous warning of the Military-Industrial Complex. Yet it seemed like, in the end, he would always give in to demands of further armament and less civilian control. I realize that these chapters were an overview of each Administration, but still those parts in particular left me wanting more explanation of the rationale behind Eisenhower's decisions.
That said, as a starting point into the world of nuclear weapons and how to mitigate their threat, you can do a lot worse than this eminently readable book.
