Annie Jacobsen

And a very plausible scenario from what I understand from all the defense officials I interviewed.

Well, six previous books on war, weapons, U.S.

national security secrets.

Imagine how many people told me they dedicated their lives to preventing nuclear World War III.

And so during the previous administration, fire and fury rhetoric, I began to think what happens if deterrence fails, that idea of prevention.

What happens?

And I took that question to the people who advise the president, who work at STRATCOM, who command the nuclear sub forces and learned that it doesn't end well.

Not only does it not end well, five billion people are dead at the end of 72 minutes.

You begin to realize when you – well, you quickly realize as you read the book that

Oh, yeah.

No one knows.

It's why I think the response to this book, it's been out for three months, has been so extraordinary.

And from both sides of the aisle, because people now are beginning to realize if nuclear war begins, it doesn't end until there is a nuclear holocaust.

And it happens so fast.

There is no quickly going to your secret bunker you have.

And also, unless he happened to be there in the exact moment when all of this went down.

We are hunter-gatherers again.

In the words of Carl Sagan, who is the author of Nuclear Winter.

But I think what's also crazy to your point about 1945 is like when this was all set up, when the nuclear arsenals were beginning – and I take the reader through it really quickly because I want them to just get to what happens at nuclear launch –

I mean the book is really about nuclear launch to nuclear winter.