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‘The Bomb’ Presents A ‘Secret History’ Of Nuclear War Planning In America

‘The Bomb’ Presents A ‘Secret History’ Of Nuclear War Planning In America, NPR, September 28, 2020
Heard on Fresh Air

DAVE DAVIES,   Author Fred Kaplan reveals how U.S. presidents, their advisers and generals have thought about, planned for — and sometimes narrowly avoided — nuclear war. Originally broadcast Jan. 27, 2020.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

DAVE DAVIES, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. In 2017, when President Trump threatened to rain fire and fury on North Korea if it leveled any more threats at the United States, our guest, Fred Kaplan, decided it was time for a new book. Kaplan’s 1983 book, “The Wizards Of Armageddon,” was about nuclear war strategy during the Cold War. He says the recent confrontation between North Korea and the United States got Americans thinking about the prospect of nuclear war in a way they hadn’t since the end of the Cold War nearly 30 years before. So he decided it was time to look again at how American leaders have managed these terrifying weapons and the threat they pose to the world today.

Kaplan read thousands of declassified documents and interviewed former military leaders and government officials. The result is his new book about how American presidents and their advisers and generals have thought about, planned for and sometimes narrowly avoided nuclear war over the past 70 years. Fred Kaplan is a national security columnist for Slate and the author of five previous books. His latest is “The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, And The Secret History Of Nuclear War.”

September 29, 2020 - Posted by | USA, weapons and war

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