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Eugene Burdick
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Fail-Safe (Fail Safe 1st Paperback Edition) Mass Market Paperback – August 1, 1963

by Eugene Burdick (Author), Harvey Wheeler (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 715 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 missile 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.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    285 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 1963
  5. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000MHDP4E
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dell Publishing Co., Inc.; 1st edition (August 1, 1963)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 285 pages
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 715 ratings

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Eugene Burdick

Eugene Burdick

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
715 global ratings
Fail Safe
5 Stars
Fail Safe
This is a novel that takes us back to the time of the Kennedy Administration when Kennedy's Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted him to send a nuclear missile to Cuba. The book is fictional but timely. It's message is true today. Like the earthquake in Japan and the nuclear reactors releasing their poison and radiation into the air and they can't control it.This book was written by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. They wrote Fail Safe to show that nuclear war could break out by accident. It's message is sobering as well as frightening. At that time, other books or films shared the same message. A comedy on this very subject was "Dr. Strangelove" with Peter Sellers in 3 roles, including the American President. Nuclear destruction was sure in the air in the early '60's.
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Top reviews from the United States

Kenny
5.0 out of 5 stars Read in around 24 hours - great read
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023
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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!
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AprilWarren
5.0 out of 5 stars 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
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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.
5 people found this helpful
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LTSpike
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping!
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2001
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Well... 5 stars for the suspense and excitement and three stars for the unrealistic mechanism which precipitates the crisis as well as the 'preachy' feel at times. Overall, I strongly recommend this book.
Due to some mechanical/electrical malfunctions, a group of bombers heads towards Moscow with nuclear bombs believing they have valid orders to drop them. Any more story details will give away too much, so I'll limit the rest of this review to general points.
It has an alarmist feel with regard to technology rapidly outpacing man's ability to control it, and I think in some ways it is quite dated both in terms of the attitude towards technology as well as the specific technologies involved. Of course, it was written over 40 years ago, so to some extent that is to be expected. The author's point that no system is foolproof is certainly valid, but I think this point is brought up too often and in artificial ways. It gives a feel of 'taking a break' in the action of the story and delivering a brief sermon, then resuming. The suspense and the tension in the story are gripping, forcing me to devour this book in two sittings.
All-in-all, an exciting cold war thriller with a little alarmist philosophy thrown in, slightly dated but still a great read!
4 people found this helpful
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Disciple of Poseidon
5.0 out of 5 stars Best cold war book ever written
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2012
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Way back in the day, my mom bought this movie for me as a kid. I was surprised, because I did not care for black and white movies other than Night of The Living Dead or Psycho. It became one of my all time favorite movies and still is to this day. I now have read the book and I love both the film and the book that much more. Fail Safe is about accidental nuclear war. During a check of a low flying aircraft over US airspace, a computer sends a go signal to a vindicator bomber group flying a holding pattern over Alaska. The bomber group heads into Russia to drop its nuclear payload on its target; Moscow. What follows is desperate attempts by the US and Soviets to stop the bombers from hitting their target. This book has it all, great action great tension, the greatest ending ever imagined and great characters like the hawkish Professor Groteschele and doveish Lt. Col. Grady posing debate about nuclear war, General Bogan's cold and brilliant command of the war room, and the steel nerve of the president while he works with the Soviet Premiere. This book is a classic for a reason and I recommend this to anyone who loves political/Armageddon thrillers.
4 people found this helpful
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Bob Forrest
5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
8 people found this helpful
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Roberto Tadeu D. Almeida
5.0 out of 5 stars Fail-Safe, a no fail book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2014
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For me, jointly with On the Beach by Nevil Shute, it's one of the best techno thrillers I've ever read. Very well witten and technically sound, the book conveys with uncanny precision, the zeitgeist of the 60s' at the peak of the cold war. The characters are very well described and the plot superbly laid. That's a book that once you start reading it, it's almost impossible to stop. A very good book, indeed!
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Alok
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product as described
Reviewed in India on December 17, 2023
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Excellent product as described. Shiny new.
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Jack M
5.0 out of 5 stars Frightening scenario
Reviewed in Australia on April 29, 2023
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This story shows how relying on technology may lead to a dire fate.
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Gianluca Carpiceci
2.0 out of 5 stars An OK book based on a weak theory
Reviewed in Italy on March 27, 2017
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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.
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Amazons Customers
5.0 out of 5 stars Fail Safe
Reviewed in Germany on February 8, 2015
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First read this in the 1960s. It was a good story then and still is today. Very well.written and very plausible.
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Mr. D. J. Walford
5.0 out of 5 stars "Can you smell burning?"........
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2012
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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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