Fróðleg bók um sögu uppbyggingar kjarnorkuvopnabúnaðar bandaríkjamanna. Það fer sannarlega kaldur hrollur um mann við að lesa frásögn Schlossers af stöðugum mistökum, óhöppum og vítaverðu gáleysi við kjarnorkuvopnin. Margoft virðist heppnin ein hafa komið í veg fyrir að kjarnorku- og vetnissprengjur spryngju í Bandaríkjunum og víðar.
Þrátt fyrir heillandi efni þá fór uppsetning bókarinnar í taugarnar á mér því Schlosser flakkaði fram og til baka í tímanum þegar hann var að reyna að gera línulega frásögn af sögu vígbúnaðarkapphlaupsins og öryggisráðstafana því tengdu annars vegar og hins vegar segja frá því í gegnum ítarlega viðtöl þegar öflugasta eldflaug bandaríkjamanna sprakk með vetnissprengju á jörðu niðri. ( )

I started this book in February, and had to set it aside once the school musical hit full-speed and the end of the school year consumed me. It gets a bit slow in the middle, but once it hits the Cuban missile crisis, it was hard to put down.

After reading the first 80 pages, I sent an email to Schlosser's publisher, thanking him for writing the book. My dad was a missilier in the Air Force, and I never had a clue what he did. I've always been proud of my dad's Air Force career, but this book exponentially increased that pride. I had no clue the danger he endured every time he pulled an alert or stepped on a plane. In fact, I remember when the 1st Gulf War began, how comforted I felt that my dad was commanding a missile squadron and couldn't be deployed, as if he was somehow completely protected from danger at the missile silos.

Never getting rid of this book--it will become an artifact of our family history (much like Fiddler on the Roof is for my mom's side of the family). Anyone with a fleeting interest in nuclear weaponry or the Cold War (a war that doesn't get nearly the respect or recognition it deserves) has to read this book. Totally worth the time, even if it takes five months to finish it. ( )

This story is way more scary than Chernobyl. ( )

Eric Schlosser's "Command and Control" tells the very scary side of maintaining an arsenal of nuclear weapons over the past fifty years. He details a number of alerts, near misses, and accidents involving nuclear weapons, and how lucky we are that a major mishap never occurred during the cold war. The weapons, and the technology and controls behind them, are enormously complex, and given the likelihoos of mechanical breakdowns and human errors, or even a rogue element, the risks are higher than we'd like to believe.
You may not sleep very well during the first night or two of reading this book, but on the other hand, and left unsaid, is that the safeguards and safety precautions put in place to prevent inadvertant launch of missles, radiation leaks, or nuclear detonation have proven their worth thus far. Small accidents have occurred, as Schlosser details, but the controls up to this point have prevented catastrophic consequences. However, while the number of nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and former Soviet Union have been reduced, there are other countries with nuclear arsenals, and others working toward joining the nuclear club. And while Schlosser talks primarily of problems identified within our borders, multiply our identified incidents by a growing number of nations possessing nuclear weapons which could have similar problems, and it's clear we're not out of the woods quite yet.

( )

Terrifying and detailed history of the Cold War nuclear arsenal

This was a detailed history of the Strategic Air Command and the US nuclear arsenal, with special focus on a Titan II accident which illustrated the safety concerns with nuclear weapons. Readers will be amazed no more serious accidents ever occurred given the hair trigger launch posture and substandard engineering of many of the systems. A great read. ( )