Doomsday Scenario - How America Ends: The Official Doomsday Scenario Written by the United States Government During the Cold War

by Douglas Keeney and L. Douglas Keeney

Book Overview

Subtitled: . This chilling 1958 Cold War defense document lays the foundation for how Bush, Cheney and Congress reacted to the September 11th attack on America. Under government wraps for forty years,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076031313X
• ISBN13: 9780760313138
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Zenith Press
• Length: 127 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Four items of note in this slim volume

There are four items of note in "The Doomsday Senerio." The major one is a briefly-declassified memo (since reclassified) that describes a worst case senerio from the 1950's and how the federal government planned to recover from that catastrophy. The memo was written before all of the nuclear test program was completed and there are still some holes in our knowledge about the full effects of all-out global thermonuclear war. The second feature of this book is an explaination of the text in sidebars that puts the words in context. The third feature is a series of black-and-white photos of nuclear tests conducted mostly in Nevada. The final is a discussion about the events of September 11, 2001 and the continutity of government plans becoming reality. A brief mention of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is included. This book is a valuable reference because the basic document shows how our federal government thought in the late 1950's. There is reason to believe that our government still has that mindset. I liked the photos. One shows that control surfaces from a B-17 vaporized when exposed to atomic flash--but fails to mention that those control surfaces were doped fabric, the aluminumized paint having a formula like rocket fuel. Of course it vaporized--I'm surprised that the entire magnesium-aluminum allow didn't catch fire! The conclusion was that nobody could win a nuclear war. Actually, that isn't true. The United States won conclusively that nuclear Cold War against the USSR. We won it by not dropping a single nuke on the poor Russian and other peoples held captive by the Soviet government. As I said, that "Revision of Emergency Plans book, 23 April 1958" memo forming the heart of this book is its most important contribution.

Interesting little ditty from a bygone era

"The Doomsday Scenario" instantly catches one's attention with a glowing mushroom cloud on the book's cover. Closer examination also reveals that what is inside is potentially fascinating, too. Thanks to a brief window granted by the Freedom of Information Act, author Douglas Keeney was able to get his hands on a copy of the 1958 version of the U.S. Government's Emergency Plans Book. This book was the definitive study on impact of a nuclear attack on the United States. It focuses on the prelude, the actual attack, and the aftermath. It's fascinating and scary to see what our 'Cold Warriors' feared might be the end result of such a war. This manual predicts what would happen and recommends broad approaches to handling it after the fact. Author Keeney published this manual in conjunction with his own notes regarding the manual. In it, he expands on the points made in the manual and also uses the events of September 11th, 2001 as an example of how the U.S. eventually DID face a disastrous attack of great magnitude. This makes for a quick and fascinating read for any who are students of the Cold War and intrigued by this subject matter.

Valuable inside look at Cold War nuclear strategy

"The Doomsday Scenario" by L. Douglas Keeney is actually a briefly declassified copy of the "Emergency Plans Book", a high level consideration of the challenges facing the U.S. in a post nuclear strike world, published in 1958. Along with Keeney's extensive footnoting (on opposite pages to the original text) and an excellent introduction by Stephen I. Schwartz, that is the extent of the book; thus, those reviewers who have argued that this book is dry are correct, although I would argue that their focus is incorrect. Keeney's primary purpose in "The Doomsday Scenario" was to make available to the public a fascinating snapshot of how the government viewed the prospects for survival in a nuclear war as the Cold War approached its height (although, ironically, 1958 was a time when the U.S. actually had legitimate first-strike capability). As such, his notes are largely contextual (he also includes some excellent pictures of test shots, which effectively convey the destruction being so baldly stated in the document) rather than opinion or conjecture. Hence, if you are looking for a fleshed out portrait of a individual survival after a nuclear war, I would recommend fiction such as "Alas, Babylon", "On the Beach" or "The Last Ship". However, if you are interested in Cold War history in general, "The Doomsday Scenario" offers a superb primary reference, and nicely frames the nuclear strategy of the following thirty years.As for the text itself, the document covers quite thoroughly (albeit at a high level) all of the military and societal implications of a nuclear war. Among the items considered are casualties, accessibility to medical facilities, economic consequences, food production, transportation and communication. Surprisingly, the government is rather bleak in its assessment and takes a worst case view in most instances. That's not to say that they were wrong to do so, but American's have become accustomed to the positive spin-doctoring of their elected officials, and it was a little odd to see the fact being so plainly stated. Although brief, there are still more points than I could consider in a review, but there were a few aspects of the document that I (and the author) found intriguing. Specifically, although chemical and biological weapons are never considered at length, nuclear weapons are explicitly only part of a suite of WMD's that the U.S. anticipated the Russians using. It is noteworthy that the government anticipated outbreaks of Yellow Fever, smallpox, cholera and even plague within a few weeks of an attack. While the breakdown of medical services would account for some of this, there seems to be a darker consideration underlying this assessment. At the same time, the plan explicitly considers sabotage (e.g. terrorism) playing a significant role in any Soviet strike.Which brings me to my one complaint about this book: all to often Keeney draws comparisons to 9/11. While 9/11 was certainly awful, it pales in comparison t