Command and Control

Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

By: Eric Schlosser

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A myth-shattering exposé of America's nuclear weapons.

Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind. While the harms of global warming increasingly dominate the news, the equally dangerous yet more immediate threat of nuclear weapons has been largely forgotten.

Written with the vibrancy of a first-rate thriller, Command and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a nuclear missile silo in rural Arkansas with a historical narrative that spans more than 50 years. It depicts the urgent effort by American scientists, policy makers, and military officers to ensure that nuclear weapons can't be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser also looks at the Cold War from a new perspective, offering history from the ground up, telling the stories of bomber pilots, missile commanders, maintenance crews, and other ordinary servicemen who risked their lives to avert a nuclear holocaust. At the heart of the book lies the struggle, amid the rolling hills and small farms of Damascus, Arkansas, to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States.

Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with people who designed and routinely handled nuclear weapons, Command and Control takes readers into a terrifying but fascinating world that, until now, has been largely hidden from view. Through the details of a single accident, Schlosser illustrates how an unlikely event can become unavoidable, how small risks can have terrible consequences, and how the most brilliant minds in the nation can only provide us with an illusion of control. Audacious, gripping, and unforgettable, Command and Control is a tour de force of investigative journalism, an eye-opening look at the dangers of America's nuclear age.

©2013 Eric Schlosser (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of 2013

"A devastatingly lucid and detailed new history of nuclear weapons in the US...fascinating." (Time magazine)

"Schlosser's book reads like a thriller, but it's masterfully even-handed, well researched, and well organised. Either he's a natural genius at integrating massive amounts of complex information, or he worked like a dog to write this book. You wouldn't think the prospect of nuclear apocalypse would make for a reading treat, but in Schlosser's hands it does." Lev Grossman, Jonathan Franzen, The Guardian)

Very interesting. Somewhat hard to follow.

Would you listen to Command and Control again? Why?

Command and Control tells two stories concurrently, alternating back and forth, from one to the other. The first story is the story of the Damascus incident, in which a Titan nuclear missile came close to exploding in Arkansas due to a series of oversights which, as the author documents, are not nearly as rare as the public might suppose. The second story is the history of nuclear weapons themselves - their use, development, design, and testing, as well as their technical limitations (or lack thereof) and the strategic calculations that drove their development and deployment during the Cold War.

The first narrative, which recounts the Damascus incident, is illuminating and entertaining, but at times it also feels overly drawn-out and confusing. This is largely due to the way its telling is broken up over the course of the book. This structure might work better in print, but I found it challenging in audio format. The second narrative - where the author traces the history of nuclear weapons broadly, from the Manhattan Project to the present, is where the book really excels. It is first-rate. I would listen this portion of the again, for sure, and recommend it to others interested in the subject without any reservation.

On the whole, a very good book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Command and Control?

The discussion of thermonuclear weapons, as opposed to pure fission bombs, and how the former fundamentally altered the strategic calculus about the use of nuclear weapon in war. In the modern era, we do not really distinguish between the awesome but comprehensible power of fission bombs, and the truly cataclysmic and unthinkable force of thermonuclear weapons, but the distinction was actually a major turning point in the way these weapons were viewed by political and military leaders. A second highlight was the author's excellent history of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, and its rivalry with the other military services and the (civilian) U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for primacy in the control U.S. nuclear weapons capabilities.

Command and Lack of Control

In the 1996 movie "Broken Arrow" Frank Whaley's character says "I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it." Now that movie uses the term 'broken arrow' incorrectly, as it is any accidental event that involves nuclear weapons including detonation (nuclear or not), radiation leaks, lose of a weapon etc. but that fact is there are a huge amount of 'broken arrow' or near broken arrow incidents. During the peak of the cold war there were dozens, or even hundreds, each year. Eric Scholosser provides an extremely well researched book covering US military nuclear incidents and 'broken arrow' events. And it is scary.

The book tells two stories - one storyline focusing on a major non-nuclear explosion of a nuclear missile silo in Damascus AK in 1980, the events causing it, the actions taken during and then after the explosion, the then the other story follows the overall history of USA's use of nuclear weapons and incidents, starting with the Manhattan Project, going through the history of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and through the Cold War. The book outlines many of the research, testing, command structures around the development, command and control of the US nuclear arsenal, and looks into the events and causes of many of the broken arrow events. From old computers, to faulty reporting, to poor wiring, to lack of safety equipment, to human error the causes are often minor or silly, but with near extreme consequences.

It is worth noting it has always been "near extreme" consequences, with no nuclear weapons going thermonuclear by accident.

This book, along with James Mahaffey's "Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima", which focuses on nuclear incidents at power plants and other non-military installations, presents both a scary but interesting view of nuclear power and weapons.

Well researched and always engaging this book is a great read and certainly with the time.

This is another book narrated by Scott Brick. At this point I'm just copying and pasting old review of Brick's work. I've never heard of a more divisive narrator. People love him or hate him. I'm on the love him side, but your mileage may vary. He is clear and crisp, well paced and highly engaging while basically disappearing into the book. He is easy to listen to without ever "taking over" the book and drawing you out of it, or allowing you to be distracted.

Well written, narrated, and truly frightening

This book will SCARE you as only real things in life can. I knew that we had come close to nuclear wars and weapons disasters, but never knew it was THAT CLOSE.

I would like to think my Dad played a part in our Cold War survival as a Quality Assurance Inspector of munitions.

COMMAND AND CONTROL is very well narrated, too. Scott Brick is excellent. I will seek out his other narrations.

Maybe the best book I’ve ever listened to!

The impeccable authorship and flawless narration have combined to make this work a masterpiece. Get this book!

Factually fascinating read

This kept my husband and me entertained throughout a long road trip through Canada. We turned it off through customs due to the nature of the material provided. My only critique was it jumping back and forth in time and repeating information from different view points but I don’t have the skill or knowledge to say how it could have been presented differently. Scott Brick is a captivating narrator and is how I came about finding this masterpiece.

Scary

Scott Brick does a great job narrating Eric Schlosser’s amazing true story about the history of developing America’s nuclear weapons and the near disasters of America’s nuclear maintenance. There were lots of military discussions on how and when to use nuclear weapons in war, too, which are terrifying to hear.

Many of the documents Schlosser gained access to in order to write this book were through the Freedom of Information Act and had been classified decades ago. Plus the author interviewed many of the scientists, officers and soldiers who had been involved in the development and maintenance of the varied types of nuclear weapons, and subsequent accidents. Schlosser’s writing is at a high level of literary quality as well.

I think the book is a fantastic overview for the general reader.

if you have any remote interest in the Cold War...

if you have any interest in the Cold War, nuclear weapons security, safety, are either for or against their proliferation, this is an absolutely candid and is neutrally balanced book as I have found on the topic. I would note that occasionally the flashbacks to history will stretch various nuclear accident stories' recountings a bit long, but overall, this book covers everything from the minutiae to the strategic. If you have any remote interest in the politics, the science, the implications, the ethics, the statistics, the probabilities, and the future... has influenced by nuclear weapons, the Cold War, and life afterward... This book becomes a must read... I would also add that the narrator does a great job! Very often books in this format live and die by good narration, and this one is done exceedingly well.

Scared me to the core

Wow, fantastic account of our nuclear weapons program to date. But scary as can be in conveying how close we have come to total disaster so many times. The author does a fantastic job of telling the history of the program, the politics behind it and how congress, the culture of the times and budget battles have led us to where we are today. Really fantastic read that I recommend to anyone and everyone.

Wonderful Book - Exceptional Narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Command and Control to be better than the print version?

Yes. The narrator did not only "read" the book, but provided queues and emphasis that captured my attention and painted a much richer picture than I could have by just reading it.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

It was well rehearsed. You could tell the narrator knew the subject matter, at least to the extent to correctly pronounce everything and provide the necessary emphasis.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Good voice, pleasing tone, foreknowing the story to provide the proper emphasis and appropriate tone where needed.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

How close we came and how luck continues to play-out.

This is an AMAZING book - read it!

Would you listen to Command and Control again? Why?

I won't listen to it again. But I have bought the Kindle version so that I can study parts of it in more detail.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

It was a fascinating way of structuring the story, integrating "accident" chapters with "history" chapters. Took some getting used to, but it was an effective way to cover an enormous amount of material without getting bored.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

A very solid performance through the whole book. No odd changes in voice or silly pronunciation problems that I've seen crop up in many books.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"Just Because You Were Lucky Doesn't Mean You Were Smart."

Any additional comments?

The story of the history of nuclear weapons is still very relevant today, albeit not in a Cold War context. But it's also very relevant in terms of how we should think about a range of highly complex technologies going forward. They may not have the potential to instantly level a city, but they pose risks that need to be thought about. This story makes that abundantly clear!