The Explosive Sequel to Steve Sheinkin’s ‘The Bomb’


FALL OUT
Spies, Superbombs and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
by Steve Sheinkin

Steve Sheinkin’s new nonfiction thriller about the Cold War is like one of its main emblems, the U-2 spy plane: fast, lean, and capable of surveying large amounts of territory. “Fallout” also introduces young readers to a lot of material that has been classified for years.

continues at the end “Bomb,” Sheinkin, a 2012 National Book Award finalist on the science and espionage surrounding the atomic bomb, presents the whirlwind of events that led to the Cuban missile crisis. The stakes are insanely high, as both the United States and the Soviet Union rush to develop (even more devastating) hydrogen bombs.

Sheinkin begins his story in June 1953 with 13-year-old Jimmy Bozart, a Brooklyn journalist, who fell over a Soviet commercial product, a hollow piece of nickel containing a cryptic message. From here, switching between multiple story lines and locations, Sheinkin offers many more riddles to solve. “ZUGZWANG” episode title? The connection between chess and diplomacy. The title of chapter 2, “The Hedgehog and the Pants”? A question Nikita Khrushchev asked the defense minister: “What if we throw a hedgehog in Uncle Sam’s pants?” – what set the missile crisis in motion.

“Fallout” offers young readers information rather than reassurance. On one of the 13 notorious days in October 1962, President John F. Kennedy told his aides, “It’s insane that two men sitting on opposite sides of the world can decide to end civilization.” Other features of the Cold War that were initially mysterious include the divided city of Berlin in East Germany, 110 miles from West Germany; Sheinkin makes it clear why it’s the most controversial place in the world. There was also the Bay of Pigs, a US-backed invasion of Cuba that was among several unsuccessful plots against Fidel Castro. Another dubious idea propagated by the government and others was that ordinary Americans could survive a thermonuclear attack by escaping, sheltering, or building a bunker. Life magazine noted the upsides of building such a structure: “If war never comes, the children can claim it as a hiding place, the father can use it for poker games, and the mother can rely on it as a drawing room.”

Both Khrushchev and Kennedy are portrayed as political animals who do not want to appear weak. They too have a nation and families they want to protect; Sheinkin was lucky enough to interview Khrushchev’s son, Sergei, who was an American citizen from 1999 until his death last year. Of course, “Fallout” includes a few honest heroes and villains. In August 1961, as the Berlin Wall began to rise, a young cyclist named Harry Seidel began digging a tunnel under the wall and, at great risk for himself, helped dozens of East Berliners escape to the West. Less thoughtful than others are US military leaders like Curtis LeMay and Thomas Power, who called for a major attack on Cuba the following October, whatever the Soviet response. “Look, at the end of the war,” Power said, “if there are two Americans and one Russian, we win!”

In his simplified version of the early Cold War, Sheinkin necessarily skips a lot. He also downplays the hawkish Kennedy used to get elected and the hawkishness displayed by his brother Robert during the missile crisis. But just as “Bomb” pioneered this book, “Fallout” can lead readers to this book. “The most dangerous,” Sheinkin’s 2015 review of the Vietnam War and Daniel Ellsberg. What explosive secrets will he turn to next?



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