Summary of Fred M. Kaplan's The Bomb

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Second World War was the first war in which air power played a major role. The generation of Army airmen who came of age in the 1930s were enthralled by the theories of the Italian and American generals, Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell, who saw air power as the decisive force in wars of the future.

#2 The history of the A-bomb is the history of the generals trying to make it a military weapon after all. It became clear that the admirals’ main problem with the bomb was that the Air Force had it and the Navy did not.

#3 By 1954, the American military had woven nuclear weapons into its war plans. Any armed Soviet incursion into territory deemed vital to American interests would be met with an instant, all-out nuclear response.

#4 Eisenhower was a retired Army general who was elected president in 1952. He ended the war in Korea by threatening to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union and China, which had backed North Korea in its invasion of South Korea.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822514577

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Insights on Fred M. Kaplan's The Bomb

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Second World War was the first war in which air power played a major role. The generation of Army airmen who came of age in the 1930s were enthralled by the theories of the Italian and American generals, Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell, who saw air power as the decisive force in wars of the future.

#2

The history of the A-bomb is the history of the generals trying to make it a military weapon after all. It became clear that the admirals’ main problem with the bomb was that the Air Force had it and the Navy did not.

#3

By 1954, the American military had woven nuclear weapons into its war plans. Any armed Soviet incursion into territory deemed vital to American interests would be met with an instant, all-out nuclear response.

#4

Eisenhower was a retired Army general who was elected president in 1952. He ended the war in Korea by threatening to drop nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union and China, which had backed North Korea in its invasion of South Korea.

#5

The debate within the Pentagon continued for several years, with some arguing that the military should at least try to push back a Soviet or Chinese invasion with conventional forces in the first rounds of battle, and others calling for the pure Mitchell-Douhet vision of relying entirely on nuclear weapons.

#6

In a meeting with Eisenhower, Taylor argued that the American government was completely relying on the Air Force and nuclear weapons to fight the Soviets. Eisenhower replied that it was official American policy to use nuclear weapons at the start of any war with the Soviets.

#7

Eisenhower was very worried about how to respond to a Soviet attack. He relied on General LeMay, who had transformed SAC into a cocked pistol, to keep the nation secure.

#8

The Air Force had a plan to destroy the Soviet Union, which was called SAC Emergency War Plan 1-49, and it called for slamming the Soviet Union with the entire stockpile of atomic bombs in a single massive attack.

#9

The NAVWAG analysts argued that once the Soviets had their own nuclear arsenal, the notion of winning a nuclear war was absurd and any plan to launch an American first strike was suicidal. The only