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Eugene Burdick

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Fail Safe Paperback – July 10, 1999

by Eugene Burdick (Author), Harvey Wheeler (Author)

4.6 709 ratings

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Something has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination -- Moscow.

In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev." Not far away, in the War Room at the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and his aides watch with growing anxiety as the luminous blips crawl across a huge screen map. High over the Bering Strait in a large Vindicator bomber, a colonel stares in disbelief at the attack code number on his fail-safe box and wonders if it could possibly be a mistake.

First published in 1962, when America was still reeling from the Cuban missle crisis, Fail-Safe reflects the apocalyptic attitude that pervaded society during the height of the Cold War, when disaster could have struck at any moment. As more countries develop nuclear capabilities and the potential for new enemies lurks on the horizon, Fail-Safe and its powerful issues continue to respond.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publication date

July 10, 1999
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.72 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

088001654X
ISBN-13

978-0880016544
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eugene Burdick (1918-1965) taught at the University of California at Berkely and was chairman of the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. Among his many books is The Ugly American, the internationally famous novel written with Bill Lederer.

Harvey Wheeler has been a professor of political philosophy at several institutions, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He is the author of several books, including Educare and The Rise of the Elders, a novel. He currently lives in Southern California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco; Reprint edition (July 10, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 088001654X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0880016544
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.72 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #449,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #927 in Deals in Books
- #2,564 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)
- #4,977 in War Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 709 ratings

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4.6 out of 5

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Kenny

Read in around 24 hours - great read

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

I jumped to this book after trying to start "The Last Ship" and not being able to tolerate the over descriptiveness of that one.

Fail-Safe follows one plot line from several different character's points-of-views. While there are some relatively "in-depth" backstory digressions, they serve to develop characters more and they are not so long to turn a reader off of the book.

The building of the plot towards the climax is really well done, and I ended up blowing through this book in less than 24 hours while on a beach vacation.

It's a sobering read at a time when world tensions are extremely high...eye-opening "what if" kind of book. I definitely found it fun and easy to read as well - no author trying to use huge, laborious words just to "sound smart"

Great book, and worth picking up at this current sale price!

Helpful

AprilWarren

Love this book and similar ones that tell what happens to people after the big one drops.

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2018

Verified Purchase

Love the movie version of the book. The Black and White film shows the tension and drama on both sides as a false signal goes out to a squad of bombers that an attack on the United States is REAL. Evey character is great in their roll. The tension is real and we see how our nation, its President, the Military, and speed of light negotiations try to stop the bombers and avert the beginning of world war three. The solution to the stalemate is a shock to all. You the reader has to decide what would you do? Always wished for a sequel but I think it best there never was one. Great book and a must read. Now having talked about the Movie I finished the book. Just great and up there as one of the best in its subject. Although a bit dated and hints that maybe Kennedy was the President and Nikita Khrushchev was the Russian Premier, it nevertheless has a gripping tale of a machine gone wrong. In that the world is placed on the edge of Nuclear destruction due to a malfunction in a machine that controlled our so called mistake proof computers. Which gives a false signal that is caused by BOTH sides depending on machines to prevent or take MAN out of the Equation of making decisions. The book is great and so was the film, read and see both. Classics in both their form.

4 people found this helpful

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J. Edgar Mihelic, MA, MA, MBA

Exceedes expectations

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2010

Verified Purchase

When I picked up this book, I was only familiar with it for one reason: it is listed as the source material for the Stanly Kubrick dark-humor classis _Dr. Strangelove_. I was honestly expecting some sort of cold-war boiler-plate thriller in two or less dimensions.

Thankfully, I was wrong. The book is an edge-of-your-seat adventure. It is a bit claustrophobic at times as the characters spar across the hotline and with each other, but these are real characters that the authors give shape to. In fact, in the early chapters I thought that the authors were giving too much back-story about the several characters to the deficit of the plot. However, as we readers began to see how the characters react to these very stressful events that earlier building is fundamental in moving away from my expectations.

Although in the end I was very surprised with this book in terms of story-telling quality and with the twist at the end, there was a nagging sense of moralism attached. While I understand the drive considering the geopolitical environment this was written in, the moral of the story struck me as odd. Instead of looking at how we must respect the common humanity of all people, the book in the end delved into a neo-luddism that just struck me weird as preaching ultimately against blind trust in technology. While I moderately agree on the point, it just didn't fit. No wonder Kubrick needed the ending he chose.

4 people found this helpful

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Bob Forrest

A look over the edge into the abyss

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2018

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This novel, a period piece of the Cold War, presents an opportunity for those of us who lived through it, as well as younger generations that didn’t, a sobering glimpse of the razor’s edge on which the world balanced for decades.

It also provides an opportunity to review the strategies and philosophies that made this situation possible. The reader should think long and hard about the relationships within the elaborate man-machine system of national defense.

The world is a vastly different place than it was before the end of the Cold War. Instead of what was a terrifying, yet thoroughly understood, and essentially monolithic enemy., we now find ourselves embroiled in myriad conflicts with many enemies who seem to be intent on exsanguinating us by gnawing at our ankles rather than vaporizing us in thermonuclear Armageddon. Yet the thermonuclear threat appears once again rearing its head.

The reader may equally see this novel as a call for nuclear disarmament or a warning that threats to our existence still exist today. But it seems to me that the authors’ desire was for us to think. I second that request.

7 people found this helpful

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Doc Landis

From deep within the Cold War, or When the Cold War is no longer Cold

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

The perfect primer for those too young to remember the Cold War. The drills in school when we learned to duck and cover beneath our desk. The fallout shelters and the fallout shelter signs posted around city; giving us the false sense of security and hope that we might somehow survive a nuclear attack. This book describes the Cold War when it loses its chill, and becomes the nightmare we all feared. Read it to learn of the mindset of the mid sixties. Read it to bring back the memory of how we managed to learn to live with the fact that the planet was very close to armegeddon; but read it. And if by chance you read it once before, read it again. Those drills in school, those fallout shelters did not fall out of favor because the world was safer. They are gone and phased out because our government came to realize that they wouldn't work. If those missiles are launched, there is no calling them back. The best you can hope for is immediate incineration, but the reality is that those that do happen to avoid immediate death, are doomed to a slow, painful death from radiation sickness that you get to enjoy as you witness society crumble around you. Oh happy day.

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Top reviews from other countries

Alok

Excellent product as described

Reviewed in India on December 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Excellent product as described. Shiny new.

Jack M

Frightening scenario

Reviewed in Australia on April 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

This story shows how relying on technology may lead to a dire fate.

Gianluca Carpiceci

An OK book based on a weak theory

Reviewed in Italy on March 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

The book is pretty well written, and it is a page turner; unfortunately, the paradoxically, the story proves that its own thesis (i.e. that, despite all the highly sophisticated control systems, a mistake could have caused a thermonuclear conflict) is extremely weak. In fact, the "mistake" that triggers all the events in the novel is a combination of such unlikely coincidences that one would think that would never happen.
I have to add that I found the end hugely disappointing.

Amazons Customers

Fail Safe

Reviewed in Germany on February 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

First read this in the 1960s. It was a good story then and still is today. Very well.written and very plausible.

Mr. D. J. Walford

"Can you smell burning?"........

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2012

Verified Purchase

Cold, bleak, tragic and cynical..... and much better than the film(s).

Set in the late sixties 'Fail Safe' delivers a tale of computer error and misplaced human faith in machines to control our desires for war and peace. A tiny error in a non-descript machine, buried in a mountain leads to 'Group Six', a collection of US Air Force Vindicator bombers, progressing beyond their fail safe position and into Soviet territory to deliver 20 megaton bombs to Moscow. Desperate attempts by the US military and the President (heavily based on Kennedy but never directly implied) to counter act the aircraft leads to intense communications with Khrushchev and the Soviet military and, ultimately, to a decision being made which challenges the very sanity of all involved.

I read this book in about 24 hours and had difficulty putting it down, a Cold War classic which should be a standard text in all English Literature courses. Very easily readable and full of tension, I found my heart beating faster the nearer I got to the end. However, I especially enjoyed and liked the portrayal of several military personnel and their journeys through the psychological barriers which have been drilled into them through years of training.

One can only wonder how a sequel would have been.

5 people found this helpful

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