2024 the best missiles in the world review

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From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history - and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.

Sheehan melds biography and history, politics and science, to create a sweeping narrative that transports the listener back and forth from individual drama to world stage. The narrative takes us from Schriever’s boyhood in Texas as a six-year-old immigrant from Germany in 1917 through his apprenticeship in the open-cockpit biplanes of the Army Air Corps in the 1930s and his participation in battles against the Japanese in the South Pacific during the Second World War. On his return, he finds a new postwar bipolar universe dominated by the antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Inspired by his technological vision, Schriever sets out in 1954 to create the one class of weapons that can enforce peace with the Russians - intercontinental ballistic missiles that are unstoppable and can destroy the Soviet Union in thirty minutes. In the course of his crusade, he encounters allies and enemies among some of the most intriguing figures of the century: John von Neumann, the Hungarian-born mathematician and mathematical physicist, who was second in genius only to Einstein; Colonel Edward Hall, who created the ultimate ICBM in the Minuteman missile, and his brother, Theodore Hall, who spied for the Russians at Los Alamos and hastened their acquisition of the atomic bomb; Curtis LeMay, the bomber general who tried to exile Schriever and who lost his grip on reality, amassing enough nuclear weapons in his Strategic Air Command to destroy the entire Northern Hemisphere; and Hitler’s former rocket maker, Wernher von Braun, who along with a colorful, riding-crop-wielding Army general named John Medaris tried to steal the ICBM program.

The most powerful men on Earth are also put into astonishing relief: Joseph Stalin, the cruel, paranoid Soviet dictator who spurred his own scientists to build him the atomic bomb with threats of death; Dwight Eisenhower, who backed the ICBM program just in time to save it from the bureaucrats; Nikita Khrushchev, who brought the world to the edge of nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and John Kennedy, who saved it.

Schriever and his comrades endured the heartbreak of watching missiles explode on the launching pads at Cape Canaveral and savored the triumph of seeing them soar into space. In the end, they accomplished more than achieving a fiery peace in a cold war. Their missiles became the vehicles that opened space for America.

Reviewer: Andrew Liptak
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
Review: In the years following the Second World War, the world changed, with the balance of power fundamentally changing to polarize the world between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States was virtually untouched by the war, with its infrastructure and industrial base, already booming from supplying the military with hardware, and allowed the United States to establish its power as one of the dominant forces in the world. The Soviet Union, while devastated by the attacks from Germany, with tens of millions of people killed, maintained a large conventional military with the desire to expand its influence. The roots of this conflict had begun much earlier, and throughout the Second World War, this began to rise between the two nations.It is within this context that we see the dramatic and important rise of Maj. General Bernard Schriever, who helped to implement one of the greatest instruments that the United States could field against the Russians: a deterrent to their nuclear arms, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), and an organization that could deploy and support this weapons system. Neil Sheehan outlines his story in his recent book A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon.While Schriever wasn't directly involved in the creation of missiles and the advances that brought them further into the sky, he was an early proponent of the technology, and correctly saw that this had the ability to change warfare by eliminating it. A missile deterrent system allowed for both the rapid delivery of nuclear warheads to any point in the globe, but also allowed for a smaller conventional force, a key element to cutting costs under the Eisenhower administration.The key in this instance was to take the bombs that had been brought the Second World War to an end, and to expand and plan out their use. With the end of the war, the United States enjoyed an unprecedented control of the skies through the Air Force, a major step forward over the Soviets, who were mired with a massive conventional military. Under General Curtis LeMay, bombers were in the skies at all times, even over Russia, where they were untouchable, in a show of power. What Schriever, proposed, after learning of the technology, was a new style of warfare that was drastically different from what had been implemented before: the threat of warfare and mutually assured destruction.Schriever's story is interwoven with numerous other Air Force officers and specialists who came together during the 1950s and 1960s to develop a viable delivery system and supporting organization, against all odds. Schreiver and his colleagues had to convince not only their superiors, but members of Congress and ultimately, the President of the United States. Sheehan captures a number of these scenes in vivid and exciting detail, keeping an eye towards history, but also towards keeping the reader riveted to the story that he was telling, from both the laboratories, launch fields and the White House. Numerous notable figures make their appearances throughout: General LeMay, President Eisenhower, Robert McNamara and President Kennedy, demonstrating the vast influence that Schreiver would gain over the course of his career.For a biography, there is a lot left to be desired: Sheehan steers clear of Schriever's personal life, with few notes until the very end, focusing on his professional achievements. Instead, it's better to look at this book as a look at Schriever and his team, and how they changed the world. Johnny von Neumann, the brilliant physicist who helped create the first atomic bomb, and nuclear strategy, Lt. Col. Edward Hall, the difficult rocket engineer who helped to build some of the most critical systems and solve some of the daunting problems, and numerous others who contributed to the success of the program.Rather than a biography of Schriever, this is a biography of the ICBM, from the Thor and Atlas IRBMs, eventually to the Titan and the Minuteman Missile. With the story of the development of these weapons, there is the story of the incredible struggle to put them into place, but also how the project grew in momentum to overtake Air Power as the dominant defensive doctrine. Sheehan weaves this story seamlessly over the course of ten years. The book is very well written, capturing numerous small details that ultimately flesh out all of the central figures and how they went about their work, but there are some small problems - Sheehan doesn't footnote (although there is an extensive bibliography) anywhere, and at times, the small details are dropped in favor of the overall story and big picture.Where many military history books are about something that went wrong, this book tells the story of where almost everything went right. The style of warfare that Schriever and his team introduced predicated on the threat of war, rather than outright hostilities. The mere fact that this book was written is a testament to its success, as the United States and the Soviet Union, both rational international players, never would have gone to nuclear war with one another, despite several close calls. Indeed, Schiever was the right person for the job, and took the right risks and directions in which to take the program, while putting together a team of experts, rather than political and commercial appointees.A Fiery Peace in a Cold War does more than just tell the story of the ICBM; it provides a detailed insight into the workings of the Cold War, one of the most significant times in United States history. As Sheehan points out at the end of his book, the missiles did more than just expand and hold U.S. power in the world; they prevented war, and brought about incredible advances, such as spaceflight. What Sheehan has put together is an incredible story that captures the people central to it and some of the major events that shaped the middle of the 20th century.Originally posted to my blog.

Reviewer: George Stein
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Unsung Heroes
Review: I couldn't put this book down and give it five stars partly because I knew many of the people who are in it. There were a lot of things I wish had been in the book but were not. Vince Ford was my next door neighbor for years, and I heard all the stories and more first hand. Vince and I went everywhere and did all kinds of things together well into his nineties. He was always a delight to be with. There was never a cross word between us, and I never tired of being with him. There was never a hint that he was other than scrupulously honest and forthright. He was of extraordinary high character.The first time I met Bennie Schriever, I got into an argument with him. Hell, I didn't know who he was, yet. He was visiting Vince, and as it later turned out, he was right and I was wrong. I came to love Bennie the same as all the others who knew him. His abilities, his courage, his tireless dedication to our country made him a true hero to me. He was above all, a straight-shooter.I came along after Trev Gardner and Johnny Von Neumann were gone, but I heard everything about them from Ford. What I find a little disappointing is that there were so many anecdotes and little asides that would have made delightful additions to the book that were left out. For example, Vince Ford was known as "Grid" (as in "you may fire when ready, Gridley") to Bennie and all the insiders. It characterized so well his role for Bennie. There were so many little stories to tell. One time we were out, and I ordered a martini straight up. Vince said, "You're supposed to sip those things, aren't you?" I nodded. He went on to say that he had had lunch with Von Neumann in Princeton one time, and "Johnny" brought Oppenheimer along with him. "Oppenheimer ordered a martini. I turned my head for a moment, and, when I looked back, Judas! It was gone! He put down three more of them the same way."Sam Cohen is prominently missing from the book. Sam is the only member of the inner sanctum still alive, and although Sheehan lists him among those he interviewed, he has nothing else to say about him. Sam was a nuclear physicist and is known as "the father of the neutron bomb." He was an integral part of Bennie's team. Sam is almost ninety now and still tough, brilliant, forthright and at times testy. He loved Bennie and served him well. Sam is prominent by his absence.Vince Ford enjoyed personal friendships over his long life with such folks as Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Lindbergh, Hap Arnold and many more. He had many adventures and served the highest levels of our military and government with honor and excellence. He never set out to talk about himself; all these things just came out in context of our discussions.Bennie, Vince, Trev, Johnny and all the other guys on Bennie's team were of inestimable service to our country at a time of great danger. Tragically, most people today never heard of them.

Reviewer: DiveDoc
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: American patriotism, American arrogance and mutually assured fear in the Cold War. American technology and the military-industrial complex, born in paranoia and nurtured by Wall Street, sold by the author as a triumph of the Western will. US weapons and US weapons delivery rarely lagged behind the Soviet's capacity, if they ever did. The Russians, however, were dogged where the Americans were dilettantes...... but one would think the USA triumphant underdogs from this work.

Reviewer: Fede
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Sheehan ricostruisce in modo estremamente accurato la rincorsa degli USA agli armamenti atomici per non restare indietro rispetto al livello che attribuivano all'URSS.La trama segue la storia personale e la carriera di Bennie Schreiver, che ne ha guidato tutte le tappe intermedie: dai bombardieri a lungo raggio all'evoluzione verso i missili intercontinentali, attraverso tutte le difficoltà tecniche e le scoperte scientifiche che hanno spianato la strada.Sullo sfondo appaioni motivazioni più o meno giustificate per investire tanto in armamenti: da un lato il timore serio che l'URSS sviluppasse armamenti superiori agli USA e che li usasse senza scrupoli, dall'altro l'attribuzione all'URSS di capacità ben sueriori a quelle reali per ragioni di carriera politica, o militare, oppure per aumentare il business degli armamenti.La strada per arrivare dalle dotazioni post II Guerra Mondiale ai missili Intercontinentali è stata molto lunga e segnata da molte tappe, invenzioni, sconfitte e personaggi. Nel bene a nel male Sheehan non ne tralascia una e, per quanto gli episodi umani, scientifici e politici possano stimolare l'interesse, la parte centrale del libro risulta pedantemente ripetitiva.Tuttavia, giustificato o meno un tale livello di investimenti, sicuramente questa corsa agli armamenti ha stimolato in modo eccezionale le conquiste scientifiche che hanno portato all'avvio dell'era spaziale.Sheehan non lascia nulla di incompiuto, e così, quando ormai il filo conduttore della corsa agli armamenti si è oramai stabilizzato sul dominio USA e sui missili intercontinentali con testate atomiche, dedica ancora qualche capitolo a raccontarci come finiscono i loro giorni i personaggi principali.In conclusione, è stata una lettura molto interessante da un punto di vista storico, ma un po' pesante da portare in fondo.

Reviewer: recluse
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: どうも触手が動かなかった作品ですが、あまりものamazonn.comでのレヴューの多さに、とうとう読むことになりました。出来栄えはというと、たしかにアメリカ人受けするという意味では、見事なものです。アメリカの現代史が、一人の空軍の軍人の一生を通じて見事に描かれているのです、と同時に素人向けに、航空機という技術の軍事への応用、第二次大戦、原爆開発へのソヴィエトのスパイ活動、冷戦期の米ソの軍拡競争、そして軍産複合体の形成期の実態が実にわかりやすく解説されているのです。しかし、このスタイルと著者の描写から醸し出される世界観はにはもう飽き飽きしたというのが正直な感想です。つまるところは、いろいろな限定的な批判付きながらも、やはりアメリカ賛歌なのです。同じ著者によるA Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (Vintage)　ですでにこのスタイルに触れてしまった私には、ICBMという兵器開発のダイナミックスと軍内部での官僚政治、そして兵器開発への国を挙げての軍産学というチーム作りのすさまじさといった部分以外には、さして興味を引く部分はなかったというのが正直なところです。結局はアメリカ人好みのサクセスストーリーの一類型以上のものではなかったというのが正直な感想です。本書の最後は、A Bright Shining Lieの冒頭と同じように軍での葬式のセレモニーの描写で締めくくられますが、これこそが著者の一番の関心なのかもしれません。