Command and Control

sixty-one cities were struck by nuclear weapons: For the imaginary attack and the estimated carnage, see Anthony Leviero, “H-Bombs Test U.S. Civil Defense,” New York Times, June 16, 1955; and Edward T. Folliard, “Tests Over U.S. Indicate Centers Might Suffer Heavily in Raid,” Washington Post, June 16, 1955.

the corner of North 7th Street and Kent Avenue: See Anthony Leviero, “U.S. H-Bomb Alert Today; Eisenhower, Top Officials Among 15,000 Slated to Leave Capital,” New York Times, June 15, 1955.

only 8.2 million people would be killed and 6.6 million wounded: Cited in ibid.

the United States would “be able to take it”: Quoted in Anthony Leviero, “Mock Martial Law Invoked in Bombing Test Aftermath,” New York Times, June 17, 1955.

more than half of those casualties would be in New York City: The casualty estimates for the city were quite specific—2,991,285 deaths and 1,776,889 wounded. And yet those numbers did not dim the upbeat reporting of the drill. Cited in Peter Kihss, “City Raid Alert Termed a Success,” New York Times, June 16, 1955.

“we might — ideally — escape”: Quoted in “Anthony Leviero, “Eisenhower Hails Operation Alert as Encouraging,” New York Times, June 18, 1955.

“great encouragement”: Quoted in ibid.

“staggering”: Quoted in Betts, “A Nuclear Golden Age?” pp. 3–32.

A new word had entered the lexicon… megadeath: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word appeared in print for the first time on June 21, 1953, in an Alabama newspaper, the Birmingham News.

“The United States experienced… total economic collapse”: I read an edited version of this quote in Betts, “Nuclear Golden Age?” p. 14, and then sought out the original in Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Eisenhower Diaries (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), p. 311.

“It would be perfect rot to talk about shipping troops”: At a White House meeting, Eisenhower lost his cool, pounded the table repeatedly, and said, “You see, actually, the only thing we fear is an atomic attack delivered by air on our cities. God damn it? It would be perfect rot to talk about shipping troops abroad when fifteen of our cities were in ruins. You would have disorder and almost complete chaos in the cities and in the roads around them. You would have to restore order and who is going to restore it? Do you think the police and fire departments of those cities could restore order? Nuts! That order is going to have to be restored by disciplined armed forces.” According to Eisenhower’s press secretary, the room fell silent, and you could hear a pin drop. Quoted in “Diary Entry by the President’s Press Secretary (Hagerty),” Washington, D.C., February 1, 1955, United States State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, vol. 19, National Security Policy (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990), pp. 39–40.

“You can’t have this kind of war”: Quoted in Gregg Herken, Counsels of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 116.

PART THREE: ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN

Acceptable Risks

Jimmy Stewart enlisted in the Army: For a fine account of Stewart’s military service, see Starr Smith, Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot (Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2005).

He flew dozens of those missions: Cited in ibid., p. 263.

“He always maintained a calm demeanor”: The officer was Colonel Ramsay Potts, commander of the 453rd Bomb Group. Quoted in ibid., p. 125.

Stewart visited SAC headquarters: For the origins of the film, see Hedda Hopper, “General LeMay Briefs Stewart for Film,” Los Angeles Times, December 27, 1952. The film is also mentioned at some length in the chapter “The Heyday of SAC: The High Point of the Popular Culture Crusade,” in Steve Call, Selling Air Power: Military Aviation and Popular Culture After World War II (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2009), pp. 100–131.

“Toughest Cop of the Western World”: See Ernest Havemann, “Toughest Cop of the Western World,” Life, June 14, 1954.

“It wouldn’t dare”: Quoted in ibid.

a study by the RAND analyst Albert Wohlstetter: See A. J. Wohlstetter, F. S. Hoffman, R. J. Lutz, and H. S. Rowen, “Selection and Use of Strategic Bases,” a report prepared for United States Air Force Project Rand, R-266, April 1954 (SECRET/declassified).

“Training in SAC was harder than war”: The officer was General Jack J. Catton, who served with LeMay for sixteen years. Quoted in Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, p. 97.

Rhinelander, Wisconsin, became one of SAC’s favorite targets: See Thomas M. Coffey, Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay (New York: Crown Publishers, 1986), p. 342.

the SAC battle plan called for 180 bombers: Cited in Wainstein et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” p. 257.

the bombardier had aimed at the wrong island: See Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, Volume IV, pp. 160–2.

94 SAC bombers tested the air defense system: For the results of Operation Tailwind, see Wainstein et al., “Evolution of U.S. Command and Control,” pp. 103–4.