Michael Dobbs Heard “Not Allowed” Growing Up in the Soviet Union
A blip on a radar screen or a real missile attack. Reagan asked in his memoirs how anyone could apply reason at a time like that. Michael Dobbs turned that question into a book, and I start with it. Why did that line have to become a book?
The book is THE SIX MINUTE WAR, out now from Simon & Schuster. Dobbs has written eight books on the Cold War, World War II and the decisions presidents make under stress. One was about the Cuban Missile Crisis, where Kennedy and Khrushchev had thirteen days to find a way out. This one is about what happens when that window shrinks to a few minutes and computers start making the calls. He says the cause was shorter early warning times and fast advances in computer technology.
An engineer lieutenant colonel reflected later that a computer solves everything mathematically, but a human being still has something unpredictable deep in his soul. What have you trusted in writing this book deep in your soul? He answers with a name I never said out loud. It belongs to the man who was on duty that night.
Dobbs first went to Russia at six weeks old. He was caught up in the tsunami in Sri Lanka.
After that comes the Fast Five. Five questions, first instinct, no pressure. First Russian word you remember saying. Would you ever swim in the ocean again, yes, no or maybe. What’s a topic for a book you would love to write. What scares you more, a blip on a radar or a blank page. Who fact-checks you.
He says he invented the fact-check column at the Washington Post, so that last question lands on his home turf.
When it ends he tells me he was not expecting my questions.
I was amazed by the book and the story. Frightened that the technology has shrunk the reaction time to what could almost be seconds now. And that should frighten everyone. Where is the humanity?
THE SIX MINUTE WAR, by Michael Dobbs. A fascinating book you should order after hearing this Beyond the Mic Mini.
Beyond the Mic with Sean Dillon is the conversation series where actors, artists, authors, and more go deeper than a traditional interview. They go “Beyond the Mic”.