To the Point
US Nuclear Weapons, Past and Future
During the Cold War, atomic bombs fell out of the sky over North Carolina. A missile tipped with a hydrogen bomb blew up in Arkansas. Most Americans never knew about 700 "significant" incidents that could have produced historic catastrophes — here in the US.
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readDuring the Cold War, atomic bombs fell out of the sky over North Carolina. A missile tipped with a hydrogen bomb blew up in Arkansas. Most Americans never knew about 700 "significant" incidents that could have produced historic catastrophes — here in the US. We talk with investigative reporter Eric Schlosser, who spent five years searching declassified documents to discover how often dumb luck made the difference.
Two men involved in the Damascus incident were interviewed for The Missileers, an episode of UnFictional, a program produced and broadcast here at KCRW radio in Santa Monica. The first voice is that of Greg Devlin, a Titan II liquid fuel systems maintenance specialist. The next is Ronald Gray, who was in charge of quality control at McConnell Air Force base and asked to investigate two days after the Damascus explosion.
Listen to the full story of The Missileers.
The full episode
2 of 3
The Threat to America — from Our Own Nuclear Weapons- 0:00Social Issues Central in Supreme Court’s New Term
- 8:26US Nuclear Weapons, Past and FutureYou’re reading this
- 40:26The Shutdown was Months in the Making
Warren Olney
former KCRW broadcaster
Evan George
Director of Content, News
Christian Bordal
Managing Producer, Greater LA
Katie Cooper
Producer, 'One year Later'
Eric Schlosser
investigative reporter and author
Steven Pifer
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (1998 - 2000); a William J. Perry fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University; senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
The full episode
2 of 3The Threat to America — from Our Own Nuclear Weapons- 0:00Social Issues Central in Supreme Court’s New Term
- 8:26US Nuclear Weapons, Past and FutureYou’re reading this
- 40:26The Shutdown was Months in the Making