This book provides a comprehensive history of how America's presidents and generals have thought about, threatened, and just barely avoided nuclear war since the dawn of the atomic age. Fred Kaplan takes readers into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s 'Tank' in the Pentagon, and the vast chambers of Strategic Command to reveal untold stories based on his deep research and reporting. The book discusses theories and nightmare scenarios involving mass destruction, highlighting the enduring reality of nuclear war and its dire consequences.
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Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s “War Stories” correspondent, author of the new novel A Capital Calamity and The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War.
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