Annie Jacobsen

And I write about Proud Prophet in the book because it was super significant in many ways. One, it was happening right before In 1983, there was an, it was an insane moment in nuclear arsenals. There were 60,000 nuclear weapons. Right now there's 12,500. So we've come a long way, baby. Right. In terms of disarmament, but there were 60,000. And by the way, that was not the ultimate high.

And I write about Proud Prophet in the book because it was super significant in many ways. One, it was happening right before In 1983, there was an, it was an insane moment in nuclear arsenals. There were 60,000 nuclear weapons. Right now there's 12,500. So we've come a long way, baby. Right. In terms of disarmament, but there were 60,000. And by the way, that was not the ultimate high.

The ultimate high was 70,000. Okay. This is insane. And Ronald Reagan was president and he orders this war game called Proud Prophet. And, you know, everyone that mattered was involved. They were running the war game scenarios.

The ultimate high was 70,000. Okay. This is insane. And Ronald Reagan was president and he orders this war game called Proud Prophet. And, you know, everyone that mattered was involved. They were running the war game scenarios.

The ultimate high was 70,000. Okay. This is insane. And Ronald Reagan was president and he orders this war game called Proud Prophet. And, you know, everyone that mattered was involved. They were running the war game scenarios.

And what we learn from his declassification is that no matter how nuclear war starts, there was a bunch of different scenarios with, you know, NATO involved, without NATO, with all different scenarios. No matter how nuclear war starts, it ends in Armageddon. It ends with everyone dead.

And what we learn from his declassification is that no matter how nuclear war starts, there was a bunch of different scenarios with, you know, NATO involved, without NATO, with all different scenarios. No matter how nuclear war starts, it ends in Armageddon. It ends with everyone dead.

And what we learn from his declassification is that no matter how nuclear war starts, there was a bunch of different scenarios with, you know, NATO involved, without NATO, with all different scenarios. No matter how nuclear war starts, it ends in Armageddon. It ends with everyone dead.

I mean, this is shocking when you think about that coupled with the idea that all that has been done in the 40 some odd years since is, okay, let's just really lean in even harder to this theoretical phenomena of deterrence. Because that's all it is. It's just a statement, Lex. Like, deterrence will hold. Okay, well, what if it doesn't? Well, we know from Proud Prophet what happens if it doesn't.

I mean, this is shocking when you think about that coupled with the idea that all that has been done in the 40 some odd years since is, okay, let's just really lean in even harder to this theoretical phenomena of deterrence. Because that's all it is. It's just a statement, Lex. Like, deterrence will hold. Okay, well, what if it doesn't? Well, we know from Proud Prophet what happens if it doesn't.

I mean, this is shocking when you think about that coupled with the idea that all that has been done in the 40 some odd years since is, okay, let's just really lean in even harder to this theoretical phenomena of deterrence. Because that's all it is. It's just a statement, Lex. Like, deterrence will hold. Okay, well, what if it doesn't? Well, we know from Proud Prophet what happens if it doesn't.

I mean, here's a crazy nomenclature jargon thing for you. Ready? Escalate to de-escalate. That's what comes out of it. Think about what I just said. Escalate to de-escalate. Okay, so someone strikes you with a nuclear weapon, you're going to escalate it, right? General Hyten recently said, he was STRATCOM commander, you know,

I mean, here's a crazy nomenclature jargon thing for you. Ready? Escalate to de-escalate. That's what comes out of it. Think about what I just said. Escalate to de-escalate. Okay, so someone strikes you with a nuclear weapon, you're going to escalate it, right? General Hyten recently said, he was STRATCOM commander, you know,

I mean, here's a crazy nomenclature jargon thing for you. Ready? Escalate to de-escalate. That's what comes out of it. Think about what I just said. Escalate to de-escalate. Okay, so someone strikes you with a nuclear weapon, you're going to escalate it, right? General Hyten recently said, he was STRATCOM commander, you know,

He was sort of saber-rattling with North Korea during COVID, and he said, they need to know if they launch one nuclear weapon, we launch one. If they launch two, we launch two. But it's actually more than that. They launch one, we launch 80. Okay? That's called escalate to de-escalate. Like, pound the you-know-what out of them to get them to stop.

He was sort of saber-rattling with North Korea during COVID, and he said, they need to know if they launch one nuclear weapon, we launch one. If they launch two, we launch two. But it's actually more than that. They launch one, we launch 80. Okay? That's called escalate to de-escalate. Like, pound the you-know-what out of them to get them to stop.

He was sort of saber-rattling with North Korea during COVID, and he said, they need to know if they launch one nuclear weapon, we launch one. If they launch two, we launch two. But it's actually more than that. They launch one, we launch 80. Okay? That's called escalate to de-escalate. Like, pound the you-know-what out of them to get them to stop.

Which brings us to the most terrifying facts that I learned in all of that, and that has to do with errors, right? Not errors of like we spoke about a minute ago with a simulation test tape. I'm talking about if... One madman, one nihilistic madman were to launch a nuclear weapon, as I write in the scenario. And we needed to escalate to de-escalate.

Which brings us to the most terrifying facts that I learned in all of that, and that has to do with errors, right? Not errors of like we spoke about a minute ago with a simulation test tape. I'm talking about if... One madman, one nihilistic madman were to launch a nuclear weapon, as I write in the scenario. And we needed to escalate to de-escalate.

Which brings us to the most terrifying facts that I learned in all of that, and that has to do with errors, right? Not errors of like we spoke about a minute ago with a simulation test tape. I'm talking about if... One madman, one nihilistic madman were to launch a nuclear weapon, as I write in the scenario. And we needed to escalate to de-escalate.