never should have abandoned its Cold War-era approach to civil defense. In the event of a nuclear attack, some believe the U.S. SALT LAKE CITY-Saturday’s alert message in Hawaii warning of a ballistic missile threat may have been a false alarm, but it highlighted fears over what could come of very real, ongoing tensions between the U.S. Reading or replaying the story in itsĪrchived form does not constitute a republication of the story. The story’s end is surprising and predictable at the same time.Only for your personal, non-commercial use. Foster’s father refuses to buy into the military industrial complex on principle, which means young Foster is ostracized by his peers because he will have to use an inferior, public shelter. Dick, published in 1955 and set in a 1970s America in which a bomb shelter is a consumer good and a status symbol, with new models appearing every year. “Foster, You’re Dead!” is a prescient tale by Philip K. The responsibility drives them mad how could it be otherwise? “Game” by Donald Barthelme is a somewhat surreal story of two men manning a nuclear missile silo, tasked with simultaneously turning their keys if given an order to launch. Ellsberg believes we can disarm the “doomsday machine.” I wish I shared his hope.įinally, two short stories offer more limited but powerful narratives of what it means to live in a world that can tear itself apart. nuclear strategy, which included serious discussion of pre-emptive strikes on the Soviet Union, an act that would have ended civilization. After reading Schlosser’s book, it seems like a miracle that a more serious accident hasn’t yet happened.ĭaniel Ellsberg’s “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” is a firsthand history of 1960s U.S.
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