Neither the Soviets nor the Vietcong was fooled by the bluff. “Ignoring the safety risks,” Schlosser notes, “B-52s loaded with hydrogen bombs took off from bases in the United States and flew circular routes along the coast of the Soviet Union. They ordered the Strategic Air Command to go on airborne alert for two weeks. How to show the world he was a “madman”? Nixon and Kissinger came up with a plan in 1969.

The idea was for Nixon to make it appear he was willing to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam, in the hope that the “madman” image would convince the North Vietnamese to end the fighting. Speaking of heartless and barbaric, Schlosser covers Richard Nixon’s “madman theory,” which he and his close adviser Henry Kissinger developed after Nixon took over the presidency in 1969. That sounded “heartless and barbaric” as “images of Vietnamese women and children burned by napalm appeared on the nightly news.” Nixon were willing to appease the Communists-persuaded him to run” as George Wallace’s vice presidential candidate in 1968.Īt his press conference announcing his candidacy, LeMay “refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam,” Schlosser notes. LeMay’s “anger at how the Vietnam War was being fought-and his belief that both Democratic and Republican candidates Hubert H. It looks good, tastes good, and its cheap. Britain eats more fast food than any other country in Europe. On the other hand, he was in love with massive air power, including nuclear weapons. Now the subject of a film by Richard Linklater, Eric Schlossers explosive bestseller Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World tells the story of our love affair with fast food. LeMay, to his credit, opposed sending large numbers of combat troops to Vietnam. Curtis LeMay, the USAF Chief of Staff from 1961-68. He notes, though, that when he resigned in 1968 McNamara “left office as one of the most despised men in the United States” because he arrogantly dismissed the advice of the Pentagon’s military men and disastrously micromanaged the Vietnam War. McNamara credit for his “tireless and sincere” efforts “to avoid a nuclear war” during his time in Washington, from 1961-68. As for the Vietnam War, Schlosser gives disgraced Kennedy Administration Defense Secretary Robert S.

Eric schlosser books