Customer Reviews

American Ground Zero:: The Secret Nuclear War

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I have had this book for two years. Reading it completely 9 times and countless partial times. Gallagher in her effort "to become a blank slate upon which the stories could be written" has embodied the voice of a people not just a position of personal opinion. Hearing that voice cause's the reader to open there eye's to the stark reality of what "we the people" have allowed to happen. Revealing just how fast the holocost of the WWII was pushed out of the conscientious of the people. Allowing the same mentality that drove the Nazi's, to develope in the country "were that could not happen". Without a doubt this "work" is not for the light hearted. Reality with weight, forces the reader to think. Cause's the reader to question not only the government structure and poilcy's we have let be set but the moral code by which we justify a means to a end. How do you determine who live's and who dies? What and Who determines the worth of a human being? You will be challanged, morally, and emotionally. Carole Gallagher has painted people, words, and pictures together in a way that you will not shake off anytime soon. Personal stories will bury themselve's deep into your heart and mind. You will hear the echoed cry's of a people for which there was no justice, no hope. The bottom line reality is we let it happen. This is "the wake up call" Gallagher presents the reader with. It is very disturbing wake up call.

I'm a science writer, and I was conducting some research at the M.I.T. library regarding the 1962 series of nuclear tests at Johnston Island in the Pacific. Mostly I was seeking highly technical information -- but I saw this volume sitting on the shelf next to the monographs I was reviewing, so I took what I originally intended to be a quick glance.

After several hours' reading of "American Ground Zero", I found myself quite upset, for this collection of highly credible, first-person accounts clearly demonstrates ongoing efforts of the federal government to ignore, downplay -- even falsify -- data regarding the atomic testing of the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s, particularly the atmospheric tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site near Las Vegas up through 1962.

In today's debate regarding DOE's Yucca Mountain Project, the credibility of the federal government and its experts is a big issue in Nevada. This volume shows why -- through first-hand accounts and compelling photography, presented with the perspective of subsequent time. (Yucca mountain is an underground facility located on a corner of the old Nevada Test Site, and it is to become the nation's primary repository for high-level nuclear waste.)

For at least fifteen years, I have been following in the scientific literature the research & development of Yucca mountain. My own feelings on the matter had been ambivalent for high-level waste must be stored somewhere. Recently, I had become concerned with revelations regarding falsification of data by DOE employees and its contractors.

However, in one fell swoop -- this book completely persuaded me to the righteousness of the cause of those many Nevadans who oppose Yucca mountain. It clearly shows that Nevadans (along with residents of Utah and other downwind states) have already suffered far beyond their fair share of the nation's nuclear burden.

Sadly, the sacrifice of these citizens is not only largely unacknowledged today -- this work clearly shows that their earlier "cooperation" was concurrent with misrepresentations by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the predecessor to today's Department of Energy (DOE), as well as by various military authorities.

Many of the individuals profiled in this volume are (were) former employees of the AEC and its contractors, or are (were) military veterans who participated in these atomic tests. Their accounts all seem to have one common thread -- that there were repeated efforts by authorities to downplay, or ignore, radioactive releases and associated health effects from both above- and below-ground nuclear tests.

The author, Carole Gallagher, deserves our nation's appreciation for documenting so eloquently the experiences of these otherwise ordinary citizens and bringing them to our collective attention. Unfortunately, their living testimonies and images are quickly passing...

Carole Gallagher has written the most informative and descriptive book ever about the how the U S Government knew that innocent americans would die from the atomic bomb tests and were considered as GUINEA PIGS for the effects of radiation on humans and how the Government is still, to this day keeping documents top secret that contain information regarding how radiation effects humans when exposed to it, yet we are still being exposed to man made radiation and all for a profit for the corperate world and their bank accounts. This book is a eye opener This is written By a atomic veteran that worked on the atomic bomb while in the U S Air Force (50-54) in underground tunnel systems in New Mexico and Texas and participated in one atomic bomb test at Fort Hood, Texas. During the four (4) years I was in the USAF and has read 28 books on the subject. I was hospitalized six (6) times and treated as a outpatient thirty five (35) times and all I was ever told that there is not enough radiation to harm me. I now have 15 chronic diseases linked to radiation exposure plus cataracts. Carole Gallagher is a great author and cares less whose feet get hurt so the truth can be told. This is a must read Vernon F. Sousa National Association of Atomic Veterans Research Coordinator

I grew up in Northern Arizona on the Utah border. Living close to St George and Cedar City, Utah, we heard rumors of families with unusually high incidents of leukemia and other cancers and the ensuing speculation about the cause. Gallagher's compilation of stories supplies the most human view of the downwinders. She documents a dark and frightening chapter in our goverment's history. Most compelling were the stories of the workers at the test site who were not even afforded the pretense of protection from exposure. I would have appreciated additional focus on the effects of the testing on the Native American tribes in Utah and Northern Arizona.

Gallagher has given us a treasure by documenting the stories of radiation exposure victims who deserve to have their stories told. Once started, I could not stop reading this book and found myself studying each photograph for several minutes before reading the accompanying story.

Thank you Ms. Gallagher for leaving your New York roots, succuming to the fashion dictates of southern Utah and permitting yourself to become the blank slate upon which these stories were etched.

I've read and reread this book so many times I've lost count. In addition I've loaned it out to multiple friends just to get them to open their eyes. Each time I read it I'm still amazed at the liberties taken by the military during this period of time. There is so much important information here I could never even scratch the surface in a short review. The poignant stories told by the victims of these nuclear tests (mostly patriotic mormons who felt the govt. could do no wrong) will move you emotionally, besides backing up Gallaghers claims. If you consider yourself a patriot, prepare to have your world shaken. Just buy it, you wont be sorry.

If the hallmark of great work is the ability to get past what one wants to say or what may be said easily, and instead go for the jugular of what needs to be said, then Carole Gallagher's American Ground Zero is truly a great work. Ms. Gallagher has put herself in physical as well as psychic danger in order to give a voice that might not otherwise be heard to a group of people who have experienced, and continue to experience, an American atrocity. American Ground Zero is one of the most devastating books you will ever read, and it needs to be read by every American. I would like to give it to every journalist, schoolteacher, student- every compassionate person I know

I've read and reread this book so many times I've lost count. In addition I've loaned it out to multiple friends just to get them to open their eyes. Each time I read it I'm still amazed at the liberties taken by the military during this period of time. There is so much important information here I could never even scratch the surface in a short review. The poignant stories told by the victims of these nuclear tests (mostly patriotic mormons who felt the govt. could do no wrong) will move you emotionally, besides backing up Gallaghers claims. If you consider yourself a patriot, prepare to have your world shaken. Just buy it, you wont be sorry.

American Ground Zero is a profoundly important book. Using information that was declassified during the Clinton Administration Carole Gallagher set out to find and interview the nuclear veterans, the nuclear workers and the downwinders to the Atomic Testing Ground, just north of Las Vegas. No "shots" were made when the prevailing winds would have carried fallout toward Los Angeles, so the fallout mainly went east--to the areas of Utah immediately nearby, but as the map in the book that shows all the areas hit more than once by fallout--we are all downwinders. She took poignant photographs of people who directly experienced the fallout as well as their affected children, born after the testing. She wanted to get as much original material from the victims as possible before more of them died. The stories are harrowing.

The Nuclear Testing agency employed fleets of Plymouth Furies to track the fallout clouds on the ground and planes to track it in the air. Fallout can drift in the air all the way across the country but it is where it rains out that the effects are experienced. They even went to the extra effort to experiment with making the dirtiest bombs possible by adding coal and other debris to the "shot" as they called them. I grew up in Memphis where there was a huge outbreak of cancer in the 70s. At any given point in time there were several people on my block with cancer, young, old, anybody. My mother died of cancer, our doctor died of cancer as did his son. Another father and his teenage son got it. Of course, there was utter denial that there was a "cluster", but the book shows Memphis was squarely in the multiple fallout area. Truly it's no accident that St. Jude Hospital for children, originally founded to treat leukemia is located there As the book explains, there is frequently a 20 year delay between the intial exposure and the rise in cancer cases.

With Fukushima in the news, it is important to know that the U.S.deliberately experiemented with atomospheric nuclear tests up until the 60's and then continued on for some time into the 70s with underground testing--which sometimes ruptured through and vented radioactive steam. Then there were the Pacific tests. It should be abundantly clear that locked up in Top Secret files, the U.S. knows far more about the effects of radiation that has ever been learned at Chernobyl and now Fukushima. This book is a profound work of art that simply and incisevely reveals the truth about what has been done with Nuclear power. She makes no call to action, she simply documents the truth.

This is one of the best books I have ever read - both as a photographic work and as a historical document. Carole Gallagher is sincere, bright and has deep knowledge about her subject.

I could not stop reading it since I got it. It made me cry a few times, it made me feel lucky for not being there.

Despite all the sadness that I felt through the stories and personal losses, it is a lesson for all governments and statesmen of the future. It is also a lesson for anyone who sometimes forget how thankful we should be for just being alive and healthy.

When I think of the beauties and natural wonders of the American West, I can only feel sorry for those who allowed these horrors during the cold war era. The impact of nuclear testing and contamination will surely continue to bring sadness and losses to all of us and the environment.

At the same time, "American ground zero" also made me feel optimistic about the future. When you see that this country is also able to produce someone like the author of this book, Carole Gallagher, one can only hope that she may one day inspire lawyers, leaders and scientists to build a better world.

I felt honored to read this book and touched by the excellent work of Ms. Gallagher.

Ms Gallagher writes about the A bomb test in Neveda in the 50's and 60's some very disturbing information about the AEC and the DOE. Exactly what was our government trying to prove?