October 1962: 'Fail-Safe'

The novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler is published. The story of what happens when America's nuclear safeguards falter is serialized in The Saturday Evening Post starting with the October 13 issue, on the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book's plot is similar to "Red Alert," published in 1958. (Both books would be made into movies in 1964, "Fail-Safe" and "Dr. Strangelove," respectively.)

* "The Day the Bombers Weren't Recalled" (book review, October 23): @

* "Fail-Safe" papers from John F. Kennedy library (includes Saturday Evening Post installments, book reviews): @

* "Nuclear Fear: A History of Images" (Spencer R. Weart, 1998): @

* Excerpt from "Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History" (2003): @

* "Nuclear Peril Movies Coming" (Associated Press article, June 1963): @ 

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