Early ReviewersThomas J. Yeggy

Stalin has just been murdered and Eisenhower has been elected...

He is faced with the continuing war in Korea and CIA reports that the Soviet's are planning a major offensive in Western Europe. We go through National Security Council Meetings and the development of the U-2. Khrushchev continues to boast about Soviet bombers, armor. Ike counters with a massive retaliation doctrine. Sputnik and Gaither report send the US into a frenzy that compel Eisenhower to continue U-2 flights despite Soviet efforts to shoot down the U-2s. Eisenhower creates several scientific panels that make heavy contributions to missile and bomber development.

Finding Designated Ground Zero is about the need for and the building of the U-2 airplane. It follows the life of Caleb Young, the chief Scientist for the CIA from 1952-1960, as he tries to shade National Intelligence Estimates to forestall a first strike by US forces.

Caleb Young, intent on preventing nuclear war, must balance each side’s perceived balance of power, but to do so, he must “shade” his NIE by inflating Soviet capabilities to forestall an effort by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to launch a preemptive first strike that would annihilate 300 hundred million civilians.

When the U-2 flights from July 5, 1956, through May 1, 1960, fail to confirm a bomber or missile gap, the national security establishment begins to suspect that Caleb has deliberately falsified his reports.

After John F. Kennedy is assassinated in November 1963, Caleb begins to publicly criticize the composition of the Warren Commission, which upsets President Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach who are attempting to minimize any Cuban or Russian involvement to avoid an international incident. But the three are curious about what CIA Director John McCone is not telling them about Oswald’s activities in Mexico City and believe Caleb knows how the CIA has conducted paramilitary operations in the Philippines and Guatemala, among other locations.

Katzenbach instructs the head of his criminal intelligence division, William E. Forde (fictional), to impanel a Grand Jury and issue an office subpoena to rein in Caleb’s public statements and follow the money trail where the CIA has toppled legitimate democratic regimes. Over the next ten months, Forde deposes Caleb and is tasked with developing a complete profile of him, including his childhood years and education. Caleb delays and obfuscates to protect Forde and his family from the Agency’s counterintelligence unit.

This book is the culmination of the First Strike Series and takes the reader through the Cuban Missile Crisis all the way to a hot war between China and the US in 2027. It also discloses many secret ops by the US CIA and JFK's assassination.

The books in the First Strike series trace the life of Dr. Caleb Young, a fictional character who is a composite of our scientific community during the early years of the Cold War.

He was born in 1920 in Berkeley, California, to physicist parents who had migrated from Central Europe to escape the Magyarization process in Hungary. They are physicists at Cal Berkley and home-school Caleb in science and the humanities.Caleb takes the SAT test the first year it is offered, aces it, and is one of the first affirmative action, non-blue blood without boarding school credentials to be admitted to Princeton in 1936. He passes all his undergraduate courses in the space of a year and a half and enters Dr. Eugene Wigner's doctoral program. He is defending his thesis, and critics are becoming vocal when a thundering voice (Einstein's) from the back of the auditorium speaks: "Caleb is correct."

Caleb was awarded his doctorate at the age of eighteen and a half. He goes on to become a staff scientist for the U.S. State Department in 1940 and works with other Hungarian-born scientists on the Manhattan Project until 1945. In late 1947, he becomes the chief science officer for the newly minted CIA.He must invent several schemes to keep the Soviets at bay until the nuclear deterrent becomes a reality in 1953, the first is operation ;Shellgame where the Silverplate B-29s are shuffled around to keep the Russians guessing, the second is operation "Anaconda" where he convinces the Soviets that the B-36 is a n intercontinental bomber capable of a 10,000-mile roundtrip. Caleb also discloses Stalin's demented plot to overrun Western Europe resulting in Stalin's murder by Bulgannin and Khrushchev,

Caleb Young, intent on preventing nuclear war, must balance each side’s perceived balance of power, but to do so, he must “shade” his NIE by inflating Soviet capabilities to forestall an effort by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to launch a preemptive first strike that would annihilate 300 hundred million civilians.

When the U-2 flights from July 5, 1956, through May 1, 1960, fail to confirm a bomber or missile gap, the national security establishment begins to suspect that Caleb has deliberately falsified his reports.

After John F. Kennedy is assassinated in November 1963, Caleb begins to publicly criticize the composition of the Warren Commission, which upsets President Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach who are attempting to minimize any Cuban or Russian involvement to avoid an international incident. But the three are curious about what CIA Director John McCone is not telling them about Oswald’s activities in Mexico City and believe Caleb knows how the CIA has conducted paramilitary operations in the Philippines and Guatemala, among other locations.

Katzenbach instructs the head of his criminal intelligence division, William E. Forde (fictional), to impanel a Grand Jury and issue an office subpoena to rein in Caleb’s public statements and follow the money trail where the CIA has toppled legitimate democratic regimes. Over the next ten months, Forde deposes Caleb and is tasked with developing a complete profile of him, including his childhood years and education. Caleb delays and obfuscates to protect Forde and his family from the Agency’s counterintelligence unit.

The final 100 pages of Book III take place in 2028 when a conflict between China and the United States takes center stage over a 092 Xia class submarine the Chinese sold to North Korea in 2024. That increases tension with the United States over Naval operations in the Taiwan Straits. The submarine fires on the United States, and the United States retaliates by sinking several Chinese ships. The Chinese seek to allay Putin’s fears over environmental damage, but Putin refuses based on advice from his scientific community. The Chinese launch on the United States, and the new US ABM system is severely tested. Even though the United States escapes major damage, the debris and residue lofted into the atmosphere by the explosions from more than 500 450-kiloton warheads, launched by just four Ohio class submarines on China, result in a nuclear famine across almost the entire surface of Earth.

Stalin has just been murdered and Eisenhower has been elected...

He is faced with the continuing war in Korea and CIA reports that the Soviet's are planning a major offensive in Western Europe. We go through National Security Council Meetings and the development of the U-2. Khrushchev continues to boast about Soviet bombers, armor. Ike counters with a massive retaliation doctrine. Sputnik and Gaither report send the US into a frenzy that compel Eisenhower to continue U-2 flights despite Soviet efforts to shoot down the U-2s. Eisenhower creates several scientific panels that make heavy contributions to missile and bomber development.

Book II ends as the Soviets shoot down Powers on May 1,1960 and Ike is berated by Khrushchev at the Paris peace conference.

The books in the First Strike series trace the life of Dr. Caleb Young, a fictional character who is a composite of our scientific community during the early years of the Cold War. He was born in 1920 in Berkeley, California, to physicist parents who had migrated from Central Europe to escape the Magyarization process in Hungary. They are physicists at Cal Berkley and home-school Caleb in science and the humanities. Caleb takes the SAT test the first year it is offered, aces it, and is one of the first affirmative action, non-blue blood without boarding school credentials to be admitted to Princeton in 1936. He passes all his undergraduate courses in the space of a year and a half and enters Dr. Eugene Wigner's doctoral program. He is defending his thesis, and critics are becoming vocal when a thundering voice (Einstein's) from the back of the auditorium speaks: "Caleb is correct."

Caleb was awarded his doctorate at the age of eighteen and a half. He goes on to become a staff scientist for the U.S. State Department in 1940 and works with other Hungarian-born scientists on the Manhattan Project until 1945. In late 1947, he becomes the chief science officer for the newly minted CIA. He must invent several schemes to keep the Soviets at bay until the nuclear deterrent becomes a reality in 1953, the first is Operation Shellgame where the Silverplate B-29s are shuffled around to keep the Russians guessing, the second is operation "Anaconda" where he convinces the Soviets that the B-36 is a n intercontinental bomber capable of a 10,000-mile roundtrip. Caleb also discloses Stalin's demented plot to overrun Westen Europe resulting in Stalin's murder by Bulgannin and Khrushchev.