What happened on a Norfolk air base in 1958 when an American threatened to k1ll himself by firing a gun into an atomic bomb?

My thanks to the Conelrad6401240 YouTube/Twitter account for alerting me to this story, and for uploading the associated documentary, 'Something Foolish With A Pistol'.

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Thank you,

Julie

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The Soviet youth organisation, the Komsomol, and how it prepared the young for nuclear war with "predators from the imperialist jungle", as Khrushchev nicely put it.

I quote from THE WHISPERERS: PRIVATE LIFE IN STALIN'S RUSSIA by Orlando Figes.

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Julie

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Americans in the early 50s were told there was a "civil defence gap", and that the Soviets were superior in protecting their population? Was this true?

As mentioned in the pod, I quote from two academic articles. They are:

'Soviet Civil Defence: The Mineshaft Gap Revisited' by Josh M Weinstein, Arms Control Today, Vol 12, No 7, August 1982

'Was There A Real Mineshaft Gap?' by Edward Geist, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol 14, No 2, Spring 2012

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Julie

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Why is America so interested in Greenland? What was its role in nuclear attack and early warning? And what happened when a huge B52 bomber carrying a bunch of hydrogen bombs crashed into the ice up there?

There's a bonus pod which accompanies this episode. You can grab it here, and get ad-free listening for the whole pod archive, at www.patreon.com/atomichobo

The reading list for these Thule episodes is below:

Fifteen Minutes: General Curtis LeMay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation, by L. Douglas Keeney

Command and Control by Eric Schlosser

Project Crested Ice: The Thule Nuclear Accident (SAC Historical Study)

'Greenland and its Relevance to North American Security', Naval War College Review, Vol 32, No. 6

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How would Harold Macmillan have ordered nuclear retaliation?

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The books and articles I used in this episode are listed below:

The Secret State by Peter Hennessy

Winds of Change by Peter Hennessy

The Prime Minister: The Office and its Holders Since 1945 by Peter Hennessy

Cabinet by Peter Hennessy

Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan by D.R. Thorpe

Planning Armageddon: Britain, the United States and the Command of Western Nuclear Forces, 1945-1964, by Len Scott, Robert Twigge et al.

'A Matter of Joint Decision': The Origins of British Nuclear Retaliation Procedures and the Murphy-Dean Agreement of 1958, by Matthew Jones in the English Historical Review

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Thor is here!

In 1958, the American Thor missiles arrive in the east of England, creating a headache for the authorities, and pain for those who protested their arrival and found themselves thrown into wet concrete, pelted with rotten fruit, and dragged around by the hair.

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Thank you!

Julie

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Supermac becomes Prime Minister in January 1957, a bumper year for nuclear matters!

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A new series on former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a man born in the Victorian era who led Britain into her thermonuclear age and through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This episode starts with his horrible experiences in the trenches and takes us up to his 1954 appointment as Defence Secretary, but we take in Greek tragedy, adultery, plane crashes and a bit of Ronnie Kray on the way.

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The books I quote from today are:

• Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan, by D.R. Thorpe
• Churchill and the Bomb, by Kevin Ruane
• The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years, by Harold Macmillan

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This week, Jim retreats into daydreams, and Hilda dishes out hard truths at the kitchen sink. Which one is best equipped to face the coming horror: the dreamer or the realist?

PS I left one of my puppy's snores in the recording as it was cute. I used to sometimes do this with Bomba's snores, so here is one of Gadget's.

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