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Burning the Sky
- Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Categories: History, Military
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Every war has its "bridge" - Old North Bridge at Concord, Burnside's Bridge at Antietam, the railway bridge over Burma's River Kwai, the bridge over Germany's Rhine River at Remagen, and the bridges over Korea's Toko Ri. In Vietnam it was the bridge at Thanh Hoa, called Dragon's Jaw. For seven long years hundreds of young US airmen flew sortie after sortie against North Vietnam's formidable and strategically important bridge, dodging a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire and enemy MiG planes. Many American airmen were shot down, killed, or captured....
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Publisher's Summary
After the Soviet Union proved to the United States that it possessed an operational intercontinental ballistic missile with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the world watched anxiously as the two superpowers engaged in a game of nuclear one-upmanship. Amid this rising tension, eccentric physicist Nicholas Christofilos brought forth an outlandish, albeit ingenious, idea to defend the US from a Soviet attack: detonating nuclear warheads in space to create an artificial radiation belt that would fry incoming ICBMs. Known as Operation Argus, this plan is the most secret and riskiest experiment in history, and classified details of these nuclear tests have been long obscured.
Combining his investigation of recently declassified documents with more than a decade of experience in researching and writing about the science of the Cold War, Mark Wolverton tells the unknown and controversial story of this scheme, chronicling Christofilos' unconventional idea from inception to execution, and examines the scientific, political, and environmental implications of Argus, as well as that of the atmospheric tests that followed.
Burning the Sky is an engrossing audiobook that will intrigue any lover of scientific or military history and will remind listeners why Project Argus remains frighteningly relevant nearly 60 years later.
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- jerome m.
- 2020-09-20
Excellent..... EXCELLENT LISTEN!!!
For the science minded, those that worked as Cold War Worrier's, those who are interested in the Nuclear Age and how we got to where we are today....This is one book I'd certainly recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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- KnightT
- 2021-01-14
Great analysis of nuclear atmospheric and space testing
Really important work regarding nuclear testing and whispers of issues in the future. Really great information on an important subject.
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- atti
- 2021-01-10
Detailed History of Very High Altitude (and Space) Nuclear Weapon Testing
This story tells the story of a series of nuclear tests at extremely high altitude...really some tests were done in space itself. This book follows the man who conceived of a purpose in these tests...as well as following the men, places, ships, and missiles in the tests also. It discussed the nature and results of nuclear fallout from the tests as well. In the end you will have enough information to decide for yourself: Was it worth it? What did we learn? A must for Cold War and Nuclear Weapon historians. I enjoyed this book a great deal, and have read it 2-3 times already!
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- Magnus Almgren
- 2020-10-23
Extraordinary interesting history
For me as interested in history of science and history of atom bombs, and more this was just a gem. Most of it I just did not know.... * Wide historical background given * Very well read
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- Kindle Customer
- 2020-09-30
I listened only because it was briefly free
I'm a cold war historian to the depth of my being, it is--i s you not--the third thing I would say about me and human kind of goes without saying (I hope... maybe?) so second thing and, real spit I would only cop to number two around people I respect so! in an internet/dating/bs getting to know you jive that cold war bit would be #1. that said this book is long on science that I couldn't care less about, really they go boom huh? big boom? k, and short on social and political factors that are actually fascinating to me. so science people with mild historical concerns dive in, history buffs don't waste ya time... I mean I'm sure dude knows what he's talking about and it's read well just wasn't for me.