Fail-Safe is a bestselling American novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. The story was initially serialized in three installments in the Saturday Evening Post, on October 13, 20, and 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The novel was released on October 22, 1962, and was then adapted into a 1964 film of the same name directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, Dan O'Herlihy, and Walter Matthau. In 2000, the novel was adapted again for a televised play, broadcast live in black and white on CBS. All three works have the same theme, accidental nuclear war, with the same plot.
Fail-Safe was purported to be so similar to an earlier novel, Red Alert, that Red Alerts author, Peter George and film producer Stanley Kubrick, sued on a charge of copyright infringement, settling out of court.
Title
The title refers to the "fail-safe point" used by the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to prevent any SAC bomber from accidentally crossing into Soviet airspace and precipitating a nuclear war. In general, a fail safe ensures that, as far as possible, the machine or process will not make things worse in the event of something going wrong. The title's irony is that the nature of SAC's fail-safe protocols could make things worse, causing the event it was intended to prevent.
Plot summary
A U.S. Air Force command center receives information that an unknown aircraft is approaching from Europe. The alert status of the Strategic Air Command's (SAC) bomber forces is raised, a standard precaution against a sneak attack. The unknown aircraft then disappears from radar, causing the alert status to continue to increase, eventually leading to the bombers being sent into the air to the fail-safe points. From there, they can proceed to their targets only if they receive a special attack code from the on-board "fail-safe box". After a short time, the unknown target is reacquired and identified as an off-course commercial airliner. The SAC threat level is immediately reduced, and the bomber fleet is sent a recall order.
A technical failure at the height of the alert allows the attack code to be accidentally transmitted to Group Six, which consists of six Vindicator supersonic bombers. Colonel Grady, the head of the group, tries to contact SAC Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska to verify the fail-safe order (called Positive Check), but Soviet radio jamming prevents Grady from hearing them. Concluding that the fail-safe order and the radio jamming could mean only nuclear war, Grady orders Group Six to fly towards Moscow.
At meetings in Omaha, at the Pentagon, and in the fallout shelter of the White House, American politicians and scholars debate the implications of the attack. Professor Groteschele, a civilian advisor, suggests that the United States follow this accidental attack with a full-scale attack to force the Soviets to surrender. The President of the United States (unnamed but apparently modeled on John F. Kennedy) refuses to consider such a course of action.
Instead, the President orders the Air Force to shoot down the bombers. Some officers at SAC and in the pursuing fighter jets protest, stating that the fighters cannot easily catch the bombers and will run out of fuel over the Arctic Ocean in the attempt. The President orders them to try anyway, and the six "Skyscrapper" supersonic fighters (F-104 Starfighter-like aircraft) in the area engage their afterburners and, just prior to their fuel running out, fire their rockets in futile attempts to hit the bombers. The fighters fall into the sea, and the pilots are lost.
The President contacts the Premier of the Soviet Union (explicitly identified in the book as Nikita Khrushchev) and offers assistance in attacking the group. The Soviets decline at first; however, they soon decide to accept it. At SAC headquarters, a fight breaks out over the very idea of working with the Soviets to shoot down their own aircraft. Air Force General Bogan attempts to stop the attack, but his executive officer, Colonel Cascio, wants it to continue. Cascio attempts to take over command of SAC, but is stopped by the Air Police. However, precious time has been wasted.