Nuclear War

“The only solution is – I have to tell you – I'm way more scared of nuclear conflict than I was before reading this book.”

“And like your book was like, "Actually, we'll get into all this, but it's like actually, if one person gets really suicidal or homicidal, there's pretty much nothing anyone can do about it."”

“Then you begin to learn in the course of the book about all of the other insane situations which occur in seconds and minutes, not hours, were nuclear war to become a reality.”

“Yeah, I like the way you handled that in the book.”

“And bit by bit, I began piecing together this shocking, terrifying scenario based on all these interviews with all of these people from various generations now saying to me, "Yep, yep, that is not hyperbole. That is how it ends in your scenario in the book."”

“And by the way, if people buy the book, please use the links in the show notes; it does support the show.”

“The scenario in the book is – I'm going to overuse the word "terrifying" in this episode – but that's just the way it is, right?”

“But I always found that funny, of course until I read the book – I was like, why are you telling us you're going to launch the thing?”

“But the idea that we tell each other we're going to do this, in 20/20 hindsight after reading your book, is probably a really good idea.”

“So big takeaway from the early part of the book is there's no way to win a nuclear war because it just happens too darn fast.”

“And he really encouraged me in this in this in my process here writing this book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, because he said, "Annie, the people should know, right?"”

“The destruction from nukes, from EMP; it’s just so horrific, and I want to say you do a really good job in the book describing it without being crass.”

“You mentioned in the book that a lot of people would die of things like radiation poisoning and disease, and the description of that is quite gross as well, like your blood won’t coagulate, your intestines rupture, and you’re essentially poisoned by the gut contents that you have.”

“I hope people read the book and join this conversation while we can still have it.”

“I have to say before we go, I was reading the acknowledgment section of your book and found it funny; the stuff that's buried in there.”

“one of the most prolific comments I got from readers of Nuclear War was exactly what you're talking about. They said, 'You know what? I read your book. It was terrifying. I stayed up all night reading it. I want to go in the flash of blinding light.'”

“It was like a group of non-partisan senators who wanted to talk to me about the nuclear war book. And that was a different situation. They had read the nuclear war book.”

“But, you know, the point of me writing a book like this, and Nuclear War, is not panic as much as I believe it is pressure.”

“I've looked at this since the book Nuclear War Scenario first published and Putin was threatening the use of nuclear weapons, which is extremely dangerous.”

“I think every journalist has this moment when they're reporting a book where they go aha also called mic drop where you realize the answer to your question which is how am I going to structure this and at the same time how does it end?”

“And so anyone who managed to survive the full-scale nuclear exchange will in essence starve to death and all other kinds of horrific byproducts of fires, burning, radiation, etc., etc. And that is why the Nikita Kruef quote rang so true to me because in essence, man will return to a hunter gatherer state.”

“This book, more so than any book I have written, has been embraced by high ranking people in nuclear command and control to the degree that I did not expect.”

“Well, on a on a hopeful pop, you know, optimistic uh point, I would say that one of the most fascinating moments for me in this past year was being asked to come to the Vatican to speak to the cardinals about nuclear war, a scenario, so that they could talk to the pope. And this was Pope Francis when”

“And so what I try to do is condense the lectures that I receive about how it all works into this dramatic form, which is how I landed on this format for this book, which I think is really effective, which is giving it to you like a scenario, like this is what would happen, and then going back to”

“but I think you should read this book because you with your voice and your reach it's wise to realize”

“which is why I always say read nuclear war a scenario”

“Yeah, and that – I mean there's a reason why I began the book with what is known as a "bolt out of the blue" attack.”

“You mentioned in the book that something like two billion people would die as a result of this, and we know this because the US has been planning for this general nuclear war.”

“And it's the first three seconds – I mean, it's just like the...I'll, of course, leave it to folks to read the book.”

“As you know from reading the book in advance – and thank you for reading it so closely – this is something that is horrifying in great detail.”

“I mean, those are other conversations; those are offshoot conversations that I hope would happen from people reading this book.”

“First and foremost, when they get it from the book in this incredibly narrative form, just like tick-tock: here's what happens; here's what happens in the first second; here's what happens in the second second.”

“And as I write in the book, you know, so while the rest of us are sleeping or going about our days, that's happening.”

“And then, as I show in the book, oh my God, what would happen were the nuclear command and control structure in the United States to figure out one of those ICBM tests isn't a test; it's actually headed for the United States?”

“When I first picked up the book Nuclear War: A Scenario by journalist Annie Jacobsen, I just could not stop reading.”

“Here's our conversation from the archives on her urgent and essential book Nuclear War: A Scenario.”

“I saw a volume on the shelf. It was titled Simply Nuclear War, a scenario. I remembered this book. It came out last year. We reviewed it positively at the book review.”

“Now, I was really shook by this book. I I imagine many people have been. How many people roughly have told you that this is one of the more terrifying books that they've ever read?”

“That was one of the most striking things about the book. You titled your book nuclear war. We think of it as nuclear war, but it's not really a war. It's over before it begins.”

“I want you to tell us without going through the whole book. What sets off your particular scenario here.”

“You start here in in your book by imagining that there is, as as you put it, maybe as others have put it, a mad king in North Korea who essentially decides to shoot an ICBM directed at Washington, directed at the Pentagon.”

“And as you write here, nuclear war doesn't necessarily need to be one nation with which we have relations launching multiple missiles at our mainland after failed negotiations in some way.”

“One of the things you learn right off the bat when you read the book is that an ICBM, that is an intercontinental ballistic missile, it travels from one continent to the other like it sounds, it takes approximately 33 minutes to get here.”

“And of course the book is divided up into these three different sections. The first 24 minutes, the next 24 minutes, the last 24 minutes.”

“There are lots of parts to your book that are disturbing. You've wrote a wonderfully disturbing book. Congratulations.”

“It seemed like, according to your book, there once was a time when it it was more peace meal. Every branch of the military, if I'm recalling correctly, in early days had their own arsenal or had their own plan and it was really fractured in terms of the United States nuclear collection.”

“It is an interesting time to to have published this book again. This book came out last year and I know a ton of people who have read it. We reviewed it very well here at the book review.”

“However, if I'm reading your book correctly, I don't know. It only took like 12 to destroy most of civilization here. Well, you see what happens when one one megaton thermonuclear weapon strikes Washington DC. That is how I begin the book. That is the bolt out of the blue attack.”

“Welcome back. This is the book review podcast and I'm Gilbert Cruz. I'm here with Annie Jacobson, author of Nuclear War, a scenario.”

“What would the president's responsibility be in the scenario that you laid out in your book?”

“Well, there's a moment, I hate to use the word spoiler in relation to this book, but it it really has incredible narrative, so I don't want to necessarily give it all away, but there is a moment in which someone in the chain of command in the United States government, in your scenario, at least briefly, thinks, well, maybe”

“That was my frightening conversation with Annie Jacobson about her book, Nuclear War: A Scenario. I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review.”

“And I'm going to quote from Annie Jacobson's book nuclear war here. No one's, and this is after they're going over the plan again to kill 600 million people.”

“I actually recommend all the books that I read for this. Annie Jacobson's uh nuclear war a scenario. Um again, I don't entirely agree with kind of some of her panic about North Korea, but it's a it's a pretty good book on the whole about the way the system works today.”

“In her book, Nuclear War, Annie Jacobson tells a story about a visit a Los Alamos scientist named Harold Agnu paid to a NATO air NATO base in Europe in December of 1959.”

“and this is kind of what uh the book nuclear war Jacobson theor like talks about but like essentially you get like a nuclear January 6th right one nuke goes off gets launched at or goes off in one country”

“Annie Jacobson describes it in a like the aftermath of this in a harrowing way in her book Nuclear War, a scenario.”

“This is why a lot of people, there's a good book called Nuclear War by Annie Jacobson that lays all of this out in a pretty unsparing term and her provides like a theoretical and her theoretical is North Korea's mad king launches missiles for unclear reasons, right?”

“So we can shout out Annie Jacobson for her book nuclear war a scenario that goes through pretty much what we're about to take you through.”

“So we can shout out Annie Jacobson for her book nuclear war a scenario that goes through pretty much what we're about to take you through. It's what happens if the world is at war.”

“It's something that Annie Jacobson talks about in her book. Uh something that every single leader who is in charge of that decision of whether or not to launch a nuke, generally a president or somebody high up in an executive branch in any country.”

“Had Annie Jacobson on the show who wrote Nuclear War, a countdown scenario. And that's a fun episode.”

“by the way have you have you read Annie Jacobson's book nuclear war no you need to or at least have her on”

“well that's why you should read this book is very important because there is this Annie Jacobson's book there no partial there's no partial victory in this book it's impossible once it gets it's a chain reaction once this thing starts there are so many different aspects to it it's a bureaucracy beyond belief the names all the names of”

“Comes on the heels of Nuclear War a scenario.”

“What inspired you to write this book after the Nuclear War book?”

“We're going to have Annie Jacobson on uh soon to talk about her biological war book. And like this is this is probably the number one thing I'm like most worried about now after seeing”

“They I mean, your nuclear war book freaked a lot of people out. That were kind of, you know, nuclear war was in the back of their mind. You know, yeah, it's a possibility, but hey, we haven't done it.”

“I've heard a lot about your book I haven't read it but I've heard a lot about your book from a lot of people that you freaked out”

“You begin to realize when you or you quickly realize as you read the book that you know there”

“This is, um, described really, um kind of with amazing clarity in the book by any Jacobson nuclear war scenario, which describes exactly minute by minute how nuclear war starts, um and can start and then what happens for the next 72 minutes.”

“The following is a conversation with Annie Jacobsen, an investigative journalist, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of several amazing books on war, weapons, government secrecy, and national security, including the books titled "Area 51", "Operation Paperclip", "The Pentagon's Brain Phenomena", "Surprise, Kill, Vanish", and her new book, "Nuclear War".”

“You've written best-selling books including Area 51, Operation Paperclip, The Pentagon's Brain, Surprise Kill, Vanish, Nuclear War: A Scenario, and your newest release, Biological Warfare: A Scenario.”

“You said in the simulation, the theoretical account that Annie Jacobson wrote about in her book, very influential book, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Site in California is hit with a nuclear weapon.”

“Most recently and prominently is a favorite of mine. It's called Nuclear War. A scenario was one of my favorite books of last year.”