Nuclear War: A Scenario

In this work of creative nonfiction, Jacobsen urges readers to fear a nuclear war even more than they already do, imagining a terrifying scenario that ends in Armageddon. She describes in graphic detail not only the consequences of nuclear detonations but also all the systems that would be employed to track incoming missiles, try to intercept them, help get the U.S. president and other senior officials to safety as they work out how to respond, and authorize a nuclear retaliation. In the scenario she describes, nothing goes right. Two North Korean missiles take out a nuclear power station in California and central Washington, D.C. The Kremlin perceives the massive U.S. nuclear response as an attack on Russia, and one thing follows another to catastrophe. The original North Korean attack comes out of the blue—the author does not describe a prior crisis or why North Korea has launched the strike when the inevitable response is its own obliteration. The dire conclusion of the book supposes that Washington will be unable to communicate with Moscow and head off the calamity. It is good to remind readers of the insanity of a nuclear war, but a less overheated plot might have done the job better.