Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

support for equal rights, labor unions, birth control, and abortion: Although in 1968 LeMay was considered an archconservative, today he’d be called an old-fasioned liberal. See Jerry M. Flint, “LeMay Supports Legal Abortions,” New York Times, October 24, 1968; “Wallace Keeps Silent on LeMay Racial View,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1968; and Jerry M. Flint, “LeMay Says He Believes in Equal Opportunity,” New York Times, October 29, 1968.

“War is never cost-effective”: LeMay’s feelings about limited warfare are worth quoting at length. “Let me now propose some basic doctrines about war,” LeMay wrote. “First, war in any proportion, no matter how limited, is a very serious and dangerous business. War is never ‘cost-effective’ in terms of dollars and blood. People are killed. To them war is total. You cannot tell the bereaved wives, children, and parents that today’s war in Vietnam, for example, is a counterinsurgency exercise into which the United States is putting only a limited effort. Death is final, and drafted boys should not be asked to make this ultimate sacrifice unless the Government is behind them 100 percent. If we pull our punches how can we explain it to their loved ones? Our objectives must be clearly enough defined to warrant the casualties we are taking.” Curtis E. LeMay, America Is in Danger (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968), p. 305.

“but when you get in it”: “Excerpts from Comments by Wallace and LeMay on the War and Segregation,” New York Times, October 4, 1968.

“We seem to have a phobia”: Ibid.

jeered by protesters yelling, “Sieg heil”: Quoted in “LeMay, Supporter of Dissent, Seems Upset by Hecklers,” New York Times, October 25, 1968.

the antiwar movement was “Communist-inspired”: Quoted in Jerry M. Flint, “LeMay Fearful Communists Threaten American Values,” New York Times, October 31, 1968.

An Abnormal Environment

a B-52 took off from Mather Air Force Base: For the Yuba City crash, see Airmunitions Letter, No. 136-11-56H, Headquarters, Ogden Air Material Area, April 19, 1961 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), pp. 2–18; “Joint Nuclear Accident Coordinating Center Record of Events,” (For Official Use Only/declassified), n.d.; and Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, pp. 173–93.

“continue mission as long as you can”: Quoted in Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, p. 176.

“a weak point in the aircraft’s structure”: The report also noted that the B-52 has “a skin-loaded structure that readily disintegrates upon impact.” See “Accident Environments,” T. D. Brumleve, J. T. Foley, W. F. Gordon, J. C. Miller, A. R. Nord, Sandia Corporation, Livermore Laboratory, SCL-DR-69-86, January 1970 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), p. 58.

On Johnston Island in the central Pacific: For the missile explosions that occurred during the test series known as Operation Dominic, see Hansen, Swords of Armageddon, Volume IV, pp. 382–445; “Operation Dominic I, 1962,” U.S. Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests, Nuclear Test Personnel Review, Defense Nuclear Agency, February 1983; Reed and Stillman, Nuclear Express, pp. 136–137; and Maggelet and Oskins, Broken Arrow, Volume II, pp. 96–98.

Two thirds of the Thor missiles used in the tests: Four of the six missile tests ended prematurely. Project 8C in the Fish Bowl series of Dominic had been carefully planned to determine the effects of a nuclear detonation on a reentry vehicle’s heat shield and other components. “The experiment was not completed,” a report later said with disappointment, “because after approximately 1 minute of flight the missile blew up.” One of the two successful tests had unexpected results. During the Starfish Prime shot, a 1.4-megaton warhead was detonated at an altitude of about 250 miles. The electromagnetic pulse was much stronger than anticipated, damaging three satellites, disrupting radio communications across the Pacific, and causing streetlights to go out on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, about eight hundred miles away. See “Operation Dominic: Fish Bowl Series,” M. J. Rubenstein, Project Officers Report — Project 8C, Reentry Vehicle Tests, Air Force Special Weapons Center, July 3, 1963 (SECRET/RESTRICTED DATA/declassified), p. 6; “United States High-Altitude Test Experiences: A Review Emphasizing the Impact on the Environment,” Herman Hoerlin, a LASL monograph, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Ocotber 1976; and “Did High-Altitude EMP Cause the Hawaiian Streetlight Incident?” Charles Vittitoe, Electromagnetic Applications Division, Sandia National Laboratories, System Design and Assessment Notes, Note 31, June 1989.