'72 minutes': New book spells out 'the terrifying truth about nuclear war'

29 April 2024

During the Cold War, many political scientists and military experts warned that if World War 3 was fought with buttons, World War 4 would be fought with sticks and stones.

The point was that if World War 3 went nuclear, it would be so devastating that the next global conflict would be much more low-tech.

The Cold War ended in the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc fell apart. But 2024 is full of major political tensions, from the Israel-Hamas War to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

In her new book, "Nuclear War: A Scenario," journalist/author Annie Jacobsen offers a fictional scenario in which World War 3 goes nuclear after North Korea attacks the United States. And she discusses the book in a Q&A interview with journalist Kathy Gilsinan for Politico.

Asked if the scenario in her book is "realistic," Jacobsen told Gilsinan, "The scenario I chose was pieced together from interviews I did with 46 on-the-record sources and dozens of sources on background, and I ran by them various scenarios to come up with the most plausible scenario that unfolds once it begins. And this is what I came up with."

The only nuclear attack in world history came about during World War 2 in August 1945, when Democratic U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima. Many military experts have warned that the nuclear bomb used against Hiroshima paled in comparison to the nuclear weapons that were later developed.

Jacobsen stresses that in a nuclear conflict, considerable destruction could occur in only a short amount of time.

Jacobsen told Gilsinan, "Part of the terrifying truth about nuclear war, or if a nuclear exchange were to unfold, is the insane time clock that was put on everything from the moment nuclear launch is detected. This is fact. And so is the fact that the president has only six minutes; that's the rough time to make this decision. And in that time, the Black Book gets opened — he must make a choice from a counterattack list of choices inside the Black Book."

During the Cold War, the MAD theory (mutually assured destruction) argued that the Soviet Union and the United States — for all the animosity between the superpowers — realized that a nuclear World War 3 would be bad for everyone involved.

The bombing of Hiroshima was 79 years ago. Gilsinan asked Jacobsen if she thinks "deterrence" can continue to "hang on" — to which the "Nuclear War" author responded, "Some people say we're in the 79-year experiment. When I began writing the book, war in Ukraine had not happened, there were not such incredibly fragile situations unfolding around the globe. And so, it is a precarious time — and I hope that my writing Nuclear War: A Scenario, and people reading it, contribute to the safety of the future of this strange 79-year experiment."

Read Politico's full interview with author Annie Jacobsen at this link.

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