Nuclear War: A Scenario
by Annie Jacobsen
View on GoodreadsAnnie Jacobsen's minute-by-minute scenario of a North Korean nuclear strike on the United States and the resulting full exchange — built from extensive interviews with former nuclear-command officials, presented as journalism plus reconstruction.
Core ideas
- The scenario clock is the book's structuring device: every minute is timed against real launch-detection, decision, and weapons-flight intervals, so the speed of the cascade is the central revelation.
- The president has roughly six minutes to decide on retaliation after an ICBM is detected — a window short enough that the decision is essentially pre-made by doctrine, not deliberated in the moment.
- The post-strike scenario (EMP effects, nuclear winter, command-and-control collapse) is built from declassified studies; Jacobsen does not overclaim, and the bibliography is unusual for its level of officially-sourced material.
Published2024
Pages373
ISBN9780593476093
ReadApr 2024
