Nuking the Moon: And Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board
May 2019 · Penguin
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About this ebook
The International Spy Museum's Historian takes us on a wild tour of missions and schemes that almost happened, but were ultimately deemed too dangerous, expensive, ahead of their time, or even certifiably insane.
"Compulsively readable laugh out loud history." —Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Grunt and Stiff
In 1958, the U.S. Air Force nuked the moon as a show of military force. In 1967, the CIA sent live cats to spy on the Soviet government. In 1942, the British built a torpedo-proof aircraft carrier out of an iceberg. Of course, none of these things ever actually happened.
But in Nuking the Moon, intelligence historian Vince Houghton proves that abandoned plans can be just as illuminating--and every bit as entertaining—as the ones that made it. Vividly capturing the fascinating stories of how twenty-one plans from WWII and the Cold War went from conception, planning, and testing to cancellation, Houghton explores what happens when innovation meets desperation: For every plan as good as D-Day, there's a scheme to strap bombs to bats or dig a spy tunnel underneath the Soviet embassy. Along the way, he reveals what each one tells us about twentieth-century history, the art of spycraft, military strategy, and famous figures like JFK, Castro, and Churchill. By turns terrifying and hilarious—but always riveting—this is the unique story of history left on the drawing board.
"Compulsively readable laugh out loud history." —Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Grunt and Stiff
In 1958, the U.S. Air Force nuked the moon as a show of military force. In 1967, the CIA sent live cats to spy on the Soviet government. In 1942, the British built a torpedo-proof aircraft carrier out of an iceberg. Of course, none of these things ever actually happened.
But in Nuking the Moon, intelligence historian Vince Houghton proves that abandoned plans can be just as illuminating--and every bit as entertaining—as the ones that made it. Vividly capturing the fascinating stories of how twenty-one plans from WWII and the Cold War went from conception, planning, and testing to cancellation, Houghton explores what happens when innovation meets desperation: For every plan as good as D-Day, there's a scheme to strap bombs to bats or dig a spy tunnel underneath the Soviet embassy. Along the way, he reveals what each one tells us about twentieth-century history, the art of spycraft, military strategy, and famous figures like JFK, Castro, and Churchill. By turns terrifying and hilarious—but always riveting—this is the unique story of history left on the drawing board.
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Monkey Steve
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September 6, 2020
So badly typeset, or possibly misspelled that it quickly becomes unreadable Is it deliberate, or does the writer, editor and publisher not know that “outcomebased” is in fact two completely separate words? That’s in the introduction, and is just the first of so many before the end of the first chapter that I had to stop, it infuriated me so much “Welldeserved” “threequarterinch” “Germanheld” “tentoone” (three separate words there - see if you can spot them all) “readytofight” - I've has real problems typing these examples because even my phone knows that they are poor English and keeps trying to correct them. It’s a shame because otherwise it wouldn’t be a bad toilet book. The irony that it’s about stupid ideas and it has been stupidly typeset isn’t lost on me. Perhaps there’s a point and had I got past the first 60 pages it would all have been explained as something to do with the subject of the book. But I’m not going to try getting any further. Everybody involved owes readers a fulsome apology. Uselesscunts
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About the author
Vince Houghton is the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. He is also the host and creative director of the Museum's podcast, SpyCast, which reaches a national and international audience of over 2.5 million listeners each year. He is a veteran of the US army and served in the Balkans before receiving his Masters and PhD in Diplomatic and Military History from the University of Maryland. He has appeared on CNN, NBC News, Fox News, NPR and other major outlets as an expert in intelligence history.
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