Historically, the concept of war has followed a familiar script: one victor and one vanquished. However, there exists a scenario that defies this ancient logic — nuclear war. In such a case, writes Annie Jacobsen in Nuclear War: A Scenario (Dutton), “there is no such thing as capitulation. No such thing as surrender.” Only the scorched silence of what once was.
From the very first lines, the reader is drawn into a vortex of dread—a work of speculative fiction so meticulously constructed that it becomes indistinguishable from reality. This is not merely an intellectual exercise; it is a mirror held up to our world, one where the unthinkable remains entirely plausible—and where our ability to avoid catastrophe may depend less on preparedness than on our collective refusal to acknowledge the danger.
The scenario imagined by the author begins with a North Korean nuclear strike on the United States. Confronted with the unthinkable, the President has only six minutes – six excruciating minutes – to respond, as Ronald Reagan warned in his memoirs. From this point of no return, events unfold with brutal logic, and everything collapses.
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