Book I of the First Strike Series |
Mushroom CloudBook I of the First Strike SeriesMushroom Cloud, the first book in the First Strike series, traces the life of Dr. Caleb Young, a fictional character who is a composite of our scientific community during the early years of the Cold War. He was born in 1920 in Berkeley, California, to physicist parents who had migrated from Central Europe to escape the Magyarization process in Hungary. Caleb takes the SAT test the first year it is offered, aces it, and is one of the first affirmative action, non-blue bloods without boarding school credentials to be admitted to Princeton in 1936. He passes all his undergraduate courses in the space of a year and a half and enters Dr. Eugene Wigner’s doctoral program. He is defending his thesis, and critics are becoming vocal when a thundering voice (Einstein’s) from the back of the auditorium speaks: “Caleb is correct.” Caleb was awarded his doctorate at the age of eighteen and a half. He goes on to become a staff scientist for the U.S. State Department in 1940 and works with other Hungarian-born scientists on the Manhattan Project until 1945. In late 1947, he becomes the chief science officer for the newly minted CIA. Dean Acheson (a blue blood) became a close friend of Dr. Young’s while they are both at the State Department. Caleb, upon Acheson’s recommendation, becomes President Truman’s main advisor for nuclear matters, sitting in on most National Security Council (NSC) meetings.
During the Truman administration, the Soviets are becoming more aggressive in Central Europe. Caleb proposes two top secret CIA operations—Shellgame and Anaconda—to make the Soviets fear US nuclear bombers. He later advises President Eisenhower that the United States needs a high-altitude reconnaissance plane because everyone in the country is fearful of another Pearl Harbor. Caleb knew enough to help Lockheed’s chief engineer, Kelly Johnson, and his Skunk Works team design the U-2, which flew twenty-four missions over Soviet territory before being shot down on May 1, 1960. In December 1963, Caleb becomes the target of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. For decades, Young has wildly overestimated National Intelligence Estimates of Soviet capabilities in order to forestall a US preemptive first strike that would annihilate 300 million civilians and cause nuclear devastation and famine. Mushroom Cloud takes a deep dive into the numerous confrontations between the two great nuclear powers of the Cold War—the United States and the Soviet Union. The book skillfully intertwines fascinating, real historical events with Dr. Young's attempts to thwart a nuclear first strike that will put the world on the precipice of World War III. $16.95 USD
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Book II of the First Strike Series |
Finding Designated Ground ZeroBook II of the First Strike SeriesOther scientists produced essential reports such as the Lincoln Project and the Gaither Report. But there were also many so-called Caleb Youngs, our composite fictional character, in these and other scientific organizations, relegated to obscurity by mainstream historians who elevated others to fame beyond their contributions. This book and the others in this First Strike series are fictional insights into those in the scientific community who dedicated their lives to the defense of freedom. It is intended to put them in their proper place in history.
At the end of Book I, Joseph Stalin was murdered at his Kuntsevo Dacha residence outside Moscow by Soviet Party leaders who had lost confidence in his ability to conduct a surprise attack on the United States. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration achieved a détente with Nikita Khrushchev that Harry Truman could only have dreamed of, primarily because Khrushchev was perceptive enough to know that war with the West was out of the question, while Stalin was too sick to realize the devastation. Finding Designated Ground Zero, Book II in this First Strike series, is dominated by Eisenhower’s Massive Retaliation Doctrine and the development of the U-2 by Lockheed and the Technological Capabilities Panel (TCP). Despite killing many test pilots, the plane resulted in dispelling myths such as the bomber and missile gap that John F. Kennedy rode into the White House on. $16.95 USD
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Book III of the First Strike Series |
ArmageddonBook III of the First Strike SeriesDuring the Truman administration, our fictional composite character Dr. Caleb Young, in his position at the CIA, managed an operation called Anaconda that was designed to make the Soviets believe the B-36 was an accomplished intercontinental bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons deep inside the Soviet Union to counterforce targets.
Dr. Young was also an accomplished civil aeronautics engineer who took an active part in the development of the F-86 and the U-2 planes. During the Eisenhower administration’s eight years in the White House, Dr. Young assisted Richard Bissell in developing and implementing the U-2’s twenty-four missions over the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Recognizing the massive 17–1 advantage the United States enjoyed in deliverable nuclear weapons, Dr. Young—in an effort to stop a first strike by US military hardliners—found it necessary to mislead the National Security Establishment into believing the Soviets had a formidable deterrent. Along with Dr. Carl Kaysen of Harvard University, Dr. Young presented President Kennedy with an alternative to the Single Integrated Option Plan (SIOP) developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1960–1961. It was this deception, his knowledge of covert paramilitary actions, and his criticism of the Warren Commission that landed him squarely in the sights of William Forde of the U.S. Justice Department. When Kennedy took office on January 20, 1961, he faced many problems. Eisenhower had already sunk millions of dollars into the Bay of Pigs project and had balanced the budget on the back of the military, leaving the United States and NATO without a sufficient conventional response to the pressures Kennedy would face in Berlin. Kennedy exacerbated those problems by insisting on going to meet Khrushchev in Vienna on June 4, 1961, for a summit concerning the Berlin situation. At the summit, Khrushchev threatened to cut off the Allies’ access to West Berlin by concluding a separate peace treaty with East Germany. In response and in an address to the nation on July 25, 1961, Kennedy announced a massive conventional buildup. The Joint Chiefs of Staff maintained that the Soviets would interpret the conventional buildup as a denial of the will to employ our nuclear deterrent and advised Kennedy that the United States could clearly prevail if it struck with nuclear weapons first. The Berlin problem continued to fester until it seemingly would lead to World War III. $16.95 USD
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