Prevail -- Antecedents -- Declaration, action, and the air-atomic strategy -- Finding a place -- The fantastic compression of time -- To kill a nation -- Stalemate, finite deterrence, Polaris, and Stop-62 -- New sheriff in town -- End of an era -- Survive
Summary
Between 1945 and 1950, the United States had a global nuclear monopoly. The A-bomb transformed the nation's strategic airpower and saw the Air Force displace the Navy at the front line of US defense. This book traces the evolution of US strategic airpower and preparation for nuclear war from this early air-atomic era to a later period (1950-65) in which the Soviet Union's atomic capability, accelerated by thermonuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, made US strategic assets vulnerable and gradually undermined air-atomic strategy
