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The cover of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

Daniel Ellsberg

How did Americans build a system able to destroy most cities and people in the northern hemisphere?

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At a glance

Author
Daniel Ellsberg

Why read it

  • You will see how the willingness to treat whole cities as legitimate targets paved the way to a doomsday system
  • You will question who really holds the power to start a nuclear war, since authority was secretly delegated down the chain
  • You will learn how many deaths America's own war planners expected their nuclear war plans to cause

Who it is for

  • A citizen who wants to know what nuclear war plans really say
  • A student of Cold War history and presidential decisions
  • A reader following nuclear arms control debates

Contents

  1. Epigraphs
  2. Prologue
  3. Introduction
  4. Part I: The Bomb and I
  5. 1: How Could I? The Making of a Nuclear War Planner
  6. 2: Command and Control: Managing Catastrophe
  7. 3: Delegation: How Many Fingers on the Button?
  8. 4: Iwakuni: Nuclear Weapons off the Books
  9. 5: The Pacific Command
  10. 6: The War Plan: Reading the JSCP
  11. 7: Briefing Bundy
  12. 8: “My” War Plan
  13. 9: Questions for the Joint Chiefs: How Many Will Die?
  14. 10: Berlin and the Missile Gap
  15. 11: A Tale of Two Speeches
  16. 12: My Cuban Missile Crisis
  17. 13: Cuba: The Real Story
  18. Part II: The Road to Doomsday
  19. 14: Bombing Cities
  20. 15: Burning Cities
  21. 16: Killing a Nation
  22. 17: Risking Doomsday I: Atmospheric Ignition
  23. 18: Risking Doomsday II: The Hell Bomb
  24. 19: The Strangelove Paradox
  25. 20: First-Use Threats: Using Our Nuclear Weapons
  26. 21: Dismantling the Doomsday Machine

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