Nancy A. (Chocoholic) reviewed on 12/22/2013 + 291 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Thermonuclear weapons built, tested, and assembled en masse by the US government are misplaced, mistreated, and treated with little respect to the damage they can cause. This results in accidents where nuclear bombs fall out of, or off of military jets, are engulfed in flames, or fall off of carts resulting in hundreds of near catastrophic incidents, including some which could have started nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Sounds like a horror novel, doesn't it? Unfortunately, this book is nonfiction and these incidents happen much more often than you would think and are covered up by the government. Prior to reading this, I had only a vague idea that the government had nuclear weapons safely stashed away in case of emergency. Little did I know, as most of the United States population does, that nuclear weapons are all around us, deep in missile silos, aboard Navy vessels, and on many Air Force jets. Most of these have very rudimentary safety precautions, if any, and are just accidents waiting to happen. Author Eric Schlosser has extensively researched the history of thermonuclear weapons in the United States and stumbled across a minefield of near misses and tragic accidents that the government most definitely does not want you to know about. This book scared me more than any horror novel has, and it should scare you too. This book has been an eye-opening experience for sure and I would recommend it to anyone living in the United States, particularly those who believe that we are safer for having nuclear weapons.

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