Annie Jacobsen

When you're involved in it in the ground up, apparently it has... perhaps you're a different kind of steward of these systems than if you just inherit them and they are pages in a manual.

I mean, again, they are very classified, right? I mean, it was interesting coming across... levels of classification I didn't even know existed, like ECI, for example, is exceptionally controlled information, right? But the Pentagon nuclear wargaming scenarios, they're almost all still classified. One of them was declassified recently, if you can call it that.

I mean, again, they are very classified, right? I mean, it was interesting coming across... levels of classification I didn't even know existed, like ECI, for example, is exceptionally controlled information, right? But the Pentagon nuclear wargaming scenarios, they're almost all still classified. One of them was declassified recently, if you can call it that.

I mean, again, they are very classified, right? I mean, it was interesting coming across... levels of classification I didn't even know existed, like ECI, for example, is exceptionally controlled information, right? But the Pentagon nuclear wargaming scenarios, they're almost all still classified. One of them was declassified recently, if you can call it that.

I show an image of it in the book, and it's just basically like, almost entirely redacted, and then like there'll be a date, you know, or it'll say like phase one. And that one was called Proud Prophet. But what was incredible about the declassification process of that is it allowed a couple of people who were there to talk about it, okay? And that's why we have that information.

I show an image of it in the book, and it's just basically like, almost entirely redacted, and then like there'll be a date, you know, or it'll say like phase one. And that one was called Proud Prophet. But what was incredible about the declassification process of that is it allowed a couple of people who were there to talk about it, okay? And that's why we have that information.

I show an image of it in the book, and it's just basically like, almost entirely redacted, and then like there'll be a date, you know, or it'll say like phase one. And that one was called Proud Prophet. But what was incredible about the declassification process of that is it allowed a couple of people who were there to talk about it, okay? And that's why we have that information.

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.

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,