First edition
| |
| Author | Eugene Burdick Harvey Wheeler |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Political thriller |
| Publisher | McGraw-Hill |
Publication date
| October 22, 1962 |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 286 |
| ISBN | 0-07-008927-2 |
Fail-Safe is a bestselling American novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The story was initially serialized in three installments in the Saturday Evening Post, on October 13, 20, and 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The novel was released on October 22, 1962, and was then adapted into a 1964 film of the same name directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, and Walter Matthau. In 2000, the novel was adapted again for a televised play, broadcast live in black and white on CBS. All three works have the same theme, accidental nuclear war, with the same plot.
Fail-Safe was purported to be so similar to an earlier novel, Red Alert, that Red Alert's author, Peter George and film producer Stanley Kubrick, sued on a charge of copyright infringement, settling out of court.
Title
The title refers to the "fail-safe point" used by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to prevent an SAC bomber from accidentally crossing into Soviet airspace and precipitating a nuclear war. In general, a fail safe
ensures that, as far as possible, the machine or process will not make
things worse in the event of something going wrong. The title's irony is
that the nature of SAC's fail-safe protocols could make things worse,
causing the event it was intended to prevent.
Plot summary
A US Air Force command center receives information that an unknown aircraft is approaching from Europe. The alert status of the Strategic Air Command's
(SAC) bomber forces is raised, a standard precaution against a sneak
attack. The unknown aircraft then disappears from radar, causing the
alert status to continue to increase, eventually leading to the bombers
being sent into the air to the fail-safe
points. From there, they can proceed to their targets only if they
receive a special attack code. After a short time, the unknown target is
re-acquired and identified as an airliner. The threat level is
immediately reduced, and the SAC fleet is sent a recall order.
A technical failure at the height of the alert allows the attack
code to be accidentally transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six
Vindicator supersonic bombers (footage of Convair B-58 Hustler
bombers is used in the film). Colonel Grady, the head of the group,
tries to contact Omaha to verify the fail-safe order (called Positive
Check), but Soviet radio jamming prevents Grady from hearing them.
Concluding that the fail-safe order and the radio jamming could mean
only nuclear war, Grady orders the Group Six crew towards Moscow, their intended destination.
At meetings in Omaha, at the Pentagon, and in the fallout shelter of the White House,
American politicians and scholars debate the implications of the
attack. Professor Groteschele, a civilian adviser, suggests that the
United States follow this accidental attack with a full-scale attack to
force the Soviets to surrender. The President of the United States (unnamed but apparently modeled on John F. Kennedy) refuses to consider such a course of action.
Instead, the President orders the Air Force to shoot down the
bombers. Air Force brass protest, stating that the fighters cannot
easily catch the bombers and will run out of fuel over the Arctic Ocean in the attempt. The President orders them to try anyway, and the six "Skyscrapper" supersonic fighters (F-104 Starfighter-like aircraft) in the area engage their afterburners and fire their rockets in an attempt to hit the bombers. The fighters crash into the sea, and the pilots are lost.
The President contacts the Premier of the Soviet Union, identified in the book as Nikita Khrushchev,
and offers assistance in attacking the group. The Soviets decline at
first; however, they soon decide to accept it. At SAC headquarters, a
fight breaks out over the very idea of working with the Soviets to shoot
down their own aircraft. Air Force General Bogan attempts to stop the
attack, but his executive officer, Colonel Cascio, wants it to continue.
Cascio attempts to take over command of SAC, but is stopped by the Air Police. However, precious time has been wasted.
Meanwhile, the Soviet PVO Strany
air defense corps has managed to shoot down two of the six planes. The
Soviets accept American help and shoot down a third plane. Two bombers
and a support plane remain on course to Moscow. Bogan tells Marshal
Nevsky, the Soviet commander, to ignore Plane #6 (the support plane)
because it has no weapons. Nevsky, who mistrusts Bogan, instead orders
his Soviet aircraft to attack all three planes. Plane 6's last feint
guarantees that the two remaining bombers can successfully attack.
Following the failure, Nevsky collapses.
As the two planes approach Moscow, Colonel Grady uses the radio
to contact SAC to inform them that they are about to make the strike. As
a last-minute measure, the Soviets fire a barrage of nuclear-tipped
missiles to form a fireball in an attempt to knock the low-flying
Vindicator out of the sky. The Vindicators shoot up one last decoy,
which successfully leads the Soviet missiles high in the air. However,
one missile explodes earlier than expected; the second bomber blows up,
but Colonel Grady's plane survives. With the radio channel still open,
the President attempts to persuade Grady that there is no war. Believing
that such a late recall attempt must be a Soviet trick, Grady ignores
them.
The nearby explosion of the Soviet missiles has given the bomber
crew a huge radiation dose, and Grady tells his crew, "We're not just
walking wounded, we're walking dead men." He intends to fly the aircraft
over Moscow and detonate the bombs in the plane. His co-pilot agrees,
noting, "There's nothing to go home to" under the belief that the United
States has already been devastated by a full-scale nuclear attack from
the Soviet Union.
When it becomes apparent that one bomber will get through Soviet
defenses and destroy Moscow, the American President states that he will
order an American bomber to destroy New York City at the same time, with the Empire State Building as ground zero;
that also involves a grave personal sacrifice, as the First Lady is
visiting New York, and the President decides not to warn her. On hearing
this, the supposedly atheist Communist leader bursts out with "Holy Mother of God!"
He is appalled but realizes that it is the only way to prevent a
worldwide nuclear war which will probably destroy humanity as "others"
(presumably the Soviet military) would not accept the unilateral
destruction of Moscow, and would depose him and retaliate. The bomb is
dropped by a senior general within SAC, who orders his crew to let him
handle the entire bombing run by himself to assume all the
responsibility; he then takes his own life.
Lawsuit
The book so closely resembled the 1958 novel Red Alert by Peter George (which was adapted by George and Stanley Kubrick into the mutually assured destruction satire Dr. Strangelove in 1964, as well) that George filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement. The case was settled out of court.
