Command and Control
Ratings26
Average rating4
Fascinating and absolutely terrifying. I cannot believe we made it through the Cold War without at least one city being bombed.
I'm sure there are people out there who would love this, but I just didn't care about a lot of it. The Cold War stuff got so boring for me, even though I definitely understand why it was included. The stuff about Demarcus was really interesting though. If you're like me, just go watch the American Experience Command and Control episode (as of this writing it's on Netflix). If you're interested in the Cold War you'll probably enjoy this more than I did.
“... we escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck, and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greatest proportion.”
This was the first thing I've read that goes into any detail on the situation of the nuclear situation in the US and the world. Wow. I wasn't convinced I wanted to know so much about missiles and warheads and what it takes to keep them secret and secure, but after I started realizing the scope of what could have gone wrong during the heights of the Cold War the information quickly went from being academic to something much more real.
The number of accidents involving nuclear warheads is surprisingly high. The internal politics revolving around how these weapons should be used are maddening. The scope of the destruction that would have ensued had the Cold War master plan ever been carried out is literally insane. The fact that so many nations to this day have the power to cause that type of destruction makes the relatively stable state of the world seem tenuous to say the least.
Command and Conquer starts off slow, but quickly becomes an engrossing freakshow of the insanity of the Cold War and the truly awful power of the superpowers.