Recalling (again) Goldsboro’s brush with annihilation

Is anyone else surprised at the wide attention being given this account of the near-disaster over Goldsboro in 1961?

Yes, it’s a scary-fascinating story, but other than the undeniable lure of “declassified documents” I’m not seeing much that Jessica Sedgwick didn’t cover quite nicely five years ago in her This Month in North Carolina History post.

You could make the case, of course, that there are worse subjects to overreport than a barely-averted nuclear holocaust.

 

3 thoughts on “Recalling (again) Goldsboro’s brush with annihilation”

  1. If I am reading right, though, she says it was the parachute-less bomb that almost went off. The Guardian says it was the one that parachuted in.

  2. That seems correct, David. The book cited in the Guardian, “Command and Control,” says both bombs had parachutes — the chute or chutes of the one that nearly detonated ended up in the tree after opening, the chutes of the other bomb never opened as it plunged into the ground.
    http://books.google.com/books?id=H0-CJckES44C&printsec=frontcover&dq=command+and+control&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bPdAUvfzIvO34APPp4H4Bg&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=parachute&f=false

  3. Yep, that’s what I read – the parachute-less bomb. But you’re right Lee, it’s just as Ed stated in his comments, “what is new is this never-before seen document that gives the opinion of one of the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons safety that debunks conclusively the official line given publicly by the US government that lives were never at risk from this accident.” – which might seem sensationalized to those who are already educated on this, but for those who aren’t (if you think about it from their shoes) I don’t really see the harm.

    Also, I think Ed already got a fair amount of heat for his article in his own comment section haha.

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