In this episode, we debated the virtues of nuclear disarmament and democracy over a couple of days this month, specifically Seven Days in May. Does the movie realistically portray disagreements between the military and civilian leaders over nuclear weapons? What would cause the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to attempt a military coup? How long before General James Mattoon Scott becomes the 40+ person running for president in 2020? Tim Westmyer (@NuclearPodcast) and special guest Stephen I Schwartz (@AtomicAnalyst) answer these questions and more.
Before we went fishing at Blue Lake, we recommend checking out:
- The Manchurian Candidate, both the 1962 and 2004 movies
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
- Stephen I. Schwartz, Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, 1998
- David F. Kruger, This is Only a Test: How Washington, DC Prepared for Nuclear War, 2007
- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Garrett M. Graff, Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die, 2017
Here are some additional related resources cited in the episode:
- Robyn Lee, “How the Owl Bar’s Green Chile Cheeseburgers Fueled the Atomic Bomb Scientists,” Serious Eats, October 14, 2011,
- Pat Brown, “The FBI Feared that “Seven Days in May” was Bad for America,” Muckrock, March 18, 2019
- Bruce Blair and Jon Wolfsthal, “Trump Can Launch Nuclear Weapons Whenever He Wants, With or Without Mattis,” Washington Post, December 23, 2018
- Martin Pfeiffer, “Nuclear Skepticism in the Age of Trump: Jon Wolfsthal’s Claims about Secretary Mattis and the Nuclear Launch Process,” Deus ex Atomica, December 24, 2018
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