A Fiery Peace in a Cold War

Last edited Thu Dec 2, 2021, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Finished this book about a month back; it's Neil Sheehan's accounting of the creation of the US ICBM system, focusing on the story of Bernard Schriever (a German immigrant) -- the AF general most responsible for directing the development of this key element of the defense triad.

Apparently there was a lot of resistance to this effort within the Pentagon -- especially from Curtis LeMay, who considered a 1 megaton missile delivery system merely as a "fucking firecracker" compared to fleets of planes capable of dropping hydrogen bombs.

There's a lot of biographical information on the various political, contractor, and military players, and vivid descriptions of the effect the non-existent "missile gap" had on turning key establishment figures into fierce advocates for the rapid development and deployment of the missile force.

This is a shorter read than Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie" and perhaps a little less engrossing (Schriever is a little more bland that John Paul Vann, the main character in ABSL), but nevertheless I found it to be an interesting read.